Paul Kent: Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga goes back to basics ahead of clash with Tonga
THE recent turnover within the Kangaroos, including a whole new spine, caused enough fracture for coach Mal Meninga realise his players needed to be re-educated - Maroons style.
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THEY got a full dose this week, the Aussies.
The unmentioned story from last week’s loss to New Zealand was that the Kiwis came out and, in the ancient phrasing of old-time reporters, wanted it more.
New Zealand hit harder in defence, instead of this catch and hold style polluting the NRL. They ran harder. They ran for collision.
They got to everything a step before the Kangaroos and, after all that, the rest is details.
New Zealand won the Test 26-24.
Publicly coach Mal Meninga has spoken about the processes where Australia failed.
They completed around 75 per cent. The Kiwis completed at 90 per cent.
They had the ball for a set and-a-half throughout a 20-minute period in that first half. There they gave away three repeat sets, re-started the tackle count three times and three more penalties. They made 220 tackles by halftime.
What cannot be answered in the statistics, the one that can never be answered, is how much of Australia’s performance was self-inflicted and how much was forced upon them by New Zealand’s greater aggression.
Meninga spoke of the processes but, inside, he has burned.
The loss was his first as Australian coach. In different times it might almost be unforgivable.
Meninga replaced Tim Sheens as Australian coach after Sheens lost the 2014 Four Nations final to New Zealand and then the Trans Tasman Test the following season.
Sheens coached Australia 31 times for 26 wins, for a winning record of 83.9 per cent.
Forget that he had a stack of withdrawals in the Four Nations and basically played with a skeleton crew. Sheens was gone and Meninga was in.
Before Sheens Ricky Stuart coached Australia 14 times and lost twice, a win record of 85.7 per cent.
Stuart got sacked because he got into the lift the wrong time the morning after losing the World Cup, when the winning referee was also in the lift.
Overall the Kangaroos have a winning record of better than 87 per cent in more than 10 years - that makes them one of the great sporting teams in the world.
So it is odd the Kangaroos came out of that loss into a strange world.
But a perfect world.
The whole build-up to Saturday night’s Test against Tonga has been about the Tongans, the minnow nation.
It began with the narrative from last year’s highly successful Rugby League World Cup, won by Australia incidentally.
The narrative goes that the tournament was so successful only because of the Tongans and what they brought.
So all this week the Tongans have spoken of this pride in their jersey, as if it does not exist anywhere else. They speak of their heritage, their ancestry, as if the Kangaroos players were made in a factory.
The emotion of playing for the jersey.
The Australians have enjoyed not being the focus but are a little indignant.
Some might say, given the lack of energy last week against New Zealand, it is justifiable.
And all this is perfect for Meninga.
After all, this is exactly what transformed Meninga into the dominant coach he remains today.
One of the great leaders as a player, but having failed as a coach at Canberra, he took over Queensland and decided it was time he coached what he knew.
It soon became apparent that Queensland stood for something NSW, at the time, did not.
In the Kangaroos loss he has found the same.
“I liken it a little bit to when I first took over the Queensland side,” he says.
“We lost that first one. But when everybody bought in to the value systems and bought into what the expectations of putting that green and gold jersey on, once you get that …”
So this week Meninga has stepped it up.
Wherever the Kangaroos go this week they have been swamped with red Tongan flags. With this heavily worked narrative of pride in the Tongan jersey, this emotion of playing for Tonga that apparently doesn’t exist in the green and gold jersey.
Meninga has let the Kangaroos witness it all. Soak it in, boys …
It has all played straight into his sweet spot.
The message has been driven home with tones some of these Australian players were yet to see from Meninga.
“I don’t know about angry,” he says. “A little bit forceful.”
He realised the message needed to be redelivered.
The recent turnover within the Kangaroos, including a whole new spine, caused enough fracture for Meninga realise his players needed to be re-educated.
The preparation for the Kiwi Test was all about playing style. For the first time Meninga was sending out an Australian side without Cameron Smith as captain.
Johnathan Thurston was a year into rep retirement. Cooper Cronk was gone. No Billy Slater, either.
Different players meant different plays, a different style.
“All last week was around how we wanted to play the footy,” Meninga says.
This week has all been different.
Less football, more old school rev-up.
“It has been a bit of an induction process, absolutely,” he says. “The new guys may have struggled with that a little bit.
“Again, we have had to re-align that a little bit, if that’s the term. The consistent thing about the privilege of playing for your country.
“Particularly off the back of a lot of players having had a lot of success this year.
“We have talked about the Tongans around the passion side of things, but we haven’t really worried about all that sort of stuff.”
Not that he will admit to, anyway. He is too smart.
Meninga has, basically, challenged the Kangaroos this week to match whatever Tonga brings on Saturday night, and then some.
There is an ambush being planned but, this time, the narrative has flipped.
This time the big dog is looking to bite.
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