State of Origin: NRL investigating new details surrounding Ronaldo Mulitalo’s eligibility

Paul Kent reveals the NRL Integrity Unit is looking into damning new allegations surrounding the Ronaldo Mulitalo Origin eligibility saga.

Ronaldo Mulitalo was at the centre of an eligibility battle just hours before he was set to make his Origin debut. Picture: NRL Photos

The last time NSW listened to the Bleeding Hearts and granted Queensland an exemption they paid for it with a decade of pain.

Anybody prepared to entertain Ronaldo Mulitalo getting an exemption to play for Queensland, out of sympathy for how close he came to playing on Sunday, is a fool.

Mulitalo has signed five NRL contracts in his life and the first two declared him ineligible and the last three declared he was eligible.

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Monday’s inquiry was all about finding the truth.

Essentially, the issue turned on when Mulitalo moved to Australia. Was it before or after his 13th birthday?

On Monday, based on Mulitalo’s comments that he was “angry” over being ruled out on the day of the game, the NRL Integrity Unit quietly opened an investigation into how it happened.

It is believed the Integrity Unit is looking into allegations Mulitalo was encouraged by others to change his backstory in a way which made him eligible to play for the Maroons.

On Monday, his manager Antoun Zibara said it appeared to be a misunderstanding.

“There was no intent to deceive from anybody, he is more shattered than anybody,” Zibara said.

Ronaldo Mulitalo was at the centre of an eligibility battle just hours before he was set to make his Origin debut. Picture: NRL Photos

The solution should be simple, but nothing is ever simple when sporting allegiances and money is involved.

The Queensland Rugby League was yesterday still preparing its submission to the ARL Commission for why Mulitalo is qualified to play for Queensland.

The answer, of course, should be a solid no.

The eligibility rules were confusing and piecemeal so in 2012 the NRL and state leagues came up with three simple criteria, which all agreed upon.

Were you born in NSW or Queensland?

Did you reside in NSW or Queensland before your 13th birthday?

Did your father play for NSW or Queensland?

Yes to any of the three and Mulitalo wears Maroon on Sunday.

He answered no to the birthday question in his first two contracts but then yes on the three contracts after that.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Mulitalo. It is believed the reason for the change is a sub-clause in the qualification rules asking whether the player represented his State at junior level.

Mulitalo was picked, against the rules, for Queensland under-18s and under-20s.

Zibara was unsure how that happened. It happened

“His mother, with him being a junior player, did all his paperwork in relation to all that stuff and all she said to him was that you’re an Aussie and that’s what you want,” Zibara said.

Zibara said Mulitalo later answered yes on his contracts based his junior Queensland representation.

Which, in retrospect, was incorrect.

Ronaldo Mulitalo at Suncorp Stadium. Picture: NRL Photos

Complaints that NSW Rugby League boss David Trodden was out of order querying Mulitalo’s eligibility are naive and simple.

For one thing, Trodden knows the pain it can cause.

When NSW dominated Origin in 2003-05, winning all three after a drawn series in 2002, some were predicting the beginning of the end for Origin, for several reasons.

The advantage for NSW was too much, and Origin couldn’t possibly survive it.

It was left by the belief NSW had finally, seemingly, got its act together, and now understood what Origin was about and now that the Blues had finally got it right they would press home their other advantages and Queensland would struggle to win anymore.

The chief complaint was the inherent advantage NSW has over Queensland in terms of NRL clubs.

Nine Sydney clubs against three Queensland clubs was exhibited as a significant advantage, the bigger playing pool making it impossible for Queensland to compete.

The weight of argument got so large that when the QRL asked if a talented young kid playing out of Melbourne, but born and raised in Macksville, NSW, could play for the Maroons based on finishing high school in Queensland, the Blues relented.

NSW-born Greg Inglis tormented the Blues for years.

The argument given in the backrooms was that the Blues felt somewhat sorry for Queensland and were mindful of saving the Origin concept, so agreed.

Greg Inglis poured a decade of pain on NSW.

The Maroons would win the series in 2006, with Inglis on the wing for Game I, and go on to win the next seven series, and 10 of the next 11, to dominate the Origin battlefield.

Inglis played in 10 of 11 winning series and, even as the players turned over and Blues struggled to find top calibre centres, he stayed in maroon and was celebrated large and wide for having slipped out of NSW.

Worse, Queensland rejoiced with each failure of the Blues, NSW finding themselves in Origin purgatory, playing the wrong team but not knowing what the right team looked like.

The Queensland stars heaped on the pain and the entire state rode with them, without even a sympathetic side reference.

Now it has reversed.

There is no place for sympathy in professional sport.

Those that are arguing that eligibility rules are confusing, and citing numerous examples from the past to make their point, are arguing against themselves.

Yes, Peter Sterling was born in Toowoomba.

Billy Moore was also born in Tenterfield, NSW but claims he was rushed from hospital across the border to take his first breath in Queensland.

Sam Thaiday was born in Sydney, Israel Folau, too … the list is long.

To prevent this the new rules were simple and clean and designed to stop exactly what is happening now; a distortion of the rules based on emotion or shallow thinking.

What happened Sunday, when Mulitalo was withdrawn hours before the game because the QRL was uncertain he was eligible, was sad for Mulitalo.

The emotional ride was distressing.

But sympathy is not a reason to change rules that were agreed upon nearly a decade ago and which are simple and clean and agreeable.

Originally published as State of Origin: NRL investigating new details surrounding Ronaldo Mulitalo’s eligibility