Kangaroos coach asks more of his players than just good footy — he wants them to be good people

PAUL KENT: There is more to being a Kangaroo than putting on a football jumper and playing a game. Mal Meninga knows that. Now his players do too.

THERE is a freshness in attitude and talent about this Kangaroo team.

For long suffering NSW fans, currently one from 11 and counting, Mal Meninga’s appointment as coach is exhilarating.

Early forecasts had the Blues getting no more than six players in the 24-man squad, a whisper that went around the NRL Nation at double speed and had Blues officials privately concerned.

The overall make-up announced on Tuesday is a very generous 13 players to Queensland and 11 to NSW.

Of the seven debutants, four are NSW players. Names that lit up the NRL.

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Meninga wants his players to appreciate the Kangaroos jersey. Photo Mark Kolbe/Getty Images.

Most of all, Meninga is sprinkling a little of that Queensland magic over his Kangaroos. It’s all on them how much they bring back to the Blues.

It began in the shortened Australian camp earlier this year.

The Kangaroos shared a hotel for three days before playing for New Zealand. They spoke of things beyond game. They spoke of what it meant to be a Kangaroo. It was not an empty conversation.

Meninga got his players to talk about what it meant to play for Australia and reminded them that the green and gold jersey, with the kangaroo and emu on the chest, meant something beyond game plans.

“When you finish playing the game,” he said, “from a personal point of view, the green and gold means you were the best player in your position at that particular time.”

Fifita’s grand final display wasn’t enough for Meninga. Pic: Stephen Cooper.

They began to talk, to dig for that deeper meaning.

“What sort of values do we have? What’s in our DNA?” Meninga asked.

They thought about that for a while. And they realised something. There was so much more to being a Kangaroo than putting on a football jumper and playing a game. It stayed with you. It was something, whether they wanted it or not.

“That’s the other thing about having a values system,” Meninga said.

“You live and breathe it every day. Even if you go back and play club football that’s the code you live by.”

That’s why Andrew Fifita and Semi Radradra were not considered for this tour. They failed the standards of these new Kangaroos.

It was not received well everywhere. Some argued, the small thinkers pointed to some in the squad with a little form, or found incidents in the past to support their squalling.

The Kangaroos are rising above that. Meninga knows that to change your future you have to break from the past.

“When you put a green and gold jersey on,” said Meninga, “you’re expected to lift to a higher standard.

“I told the players they are our legitimate role models. ‘The game turns to you to protect it’.”

What a wonderful sentiment.

Too often in modern sport players avoid their responsibility. It does not take a deep search to find examples in our game.

A popular idea is to distance themselves from the role model tag. The parents, it always goes, should be role models Well, kids never put posters on their walls of mum and dad.

“The expectation is the players should be role models,” he said.

“If you play for Australia you accept that position. You’re accountable for what you do after that.”

Penrith’s Matt Moylan is one of Meninga’s new Roos. Picture: Richard Dobson.

Instead of hiding behind popular perceptions, the Kangaroos are challenging it. They are bringing and honesty to the approach.

The players drove the meeting at Meninga’s urging. They began writing it down. One page became two, then three. They looked at the jersey, their name.

“We’ve got a specifically unique thing to the Kangaroos,” he said.

He was reluctant to talk about it. He has agreed to give some a look at the document, which now counts four pages, to begin to understand this new era of Australian football.

“There is no other national team that carries the Kangaroos name,” he said.

The iconic symbol. It stood for something. Lesser known was the chevron that marks the NRL badge.

“The chevron is a military term for victory,” he said.

“The expectation of the Kangaroos is we’re going to be victorious. Which is not in professional sport’s language, really.

“People don’t like to talk about that, but we are. You’ve got to carry yourselves as winners.”