Oceania Cup: Mal Meninga hails Boyd Cordner as great leader as Kangaroos trounce New Zealand
Mal Meninga lavished praise on Boyd Cordner after the Aussie skipper joined an elite list of players to achieve rugby league’s trifecta - NRL, Origin and international success in the one season.
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Australia captain Boyd Cordner has been hailed as the ideal leader by Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga after achieving the rugby league trifecta on Friday night.
The 27-year-old became the first NSW player to captain an NRL premiership, a State of Origin series victory and a Test match win against a tier one nation all in the one season.
Cordner was unaware of his remarkable achievement until receiving a phone call from his grandmother this week.
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He joined Queensland greats and former green and gold captains Meninga, Cameron Smith and Darren Lockyer in rugby league history with the Kangaroos’ 26-4 win at WIN Stadium on Friday night.
“I heard of the trifecta as they called it, my nan called me through the week and she goes ‘oh they’re putting a bit of pressure on you’,” he said.
“But I obviously didn’t think about that, I didn’t put too much thought into that. My focus was about tonight and about the week.
“Our focus was to come out and put in a really good performance and I thought we did that.”
Meninga achieved the rugby league trifecta back in 1994 with Canberra, the Maroons and the Kangaroos, and has credited the team’s success to Cordner’s leadership.
“When we sat down and talked about our identity and the people we want in the green and gold jersey, the first priority, and this comes from our predecessors, is the person in the jersey being a great person who plays for the right reasons, and Boyd typifies that,” Meninga said.
“He’s a great player and a great winner. All the qualities you want in a leader, Boyd’s got.”
Originally published as Oceania Cup: Mal Meninga hails Boyd Cordner as great leader as Kangaroos trounce New Zealand