By Phil Lutton
Queensland coach Mal Meninga has downgraded his chances of becoming rugby league's next Immortal because a perceived poor relationship with the media will cost him supporters around the voting table.
Meninga was a brilliant and destructive centre during his playing days with Souths in Brisbane, the Canberra Raiders, Queensland and Australia and has been widely tipped to be the next man to join the game's most exclusive club.
Mal Meninga, seen here during his playing days for Canberra, is in line to be the next Immortal.
But he's not holding his breath. Meninga believes he has an abrasive relationship with "the media" and isn't expecting to get the nod over players like Andrew Johns, Peter Sterling and Allan Langer when the panel meets next month.
"I'm not very confident. I haven't got a good reputation with the media. I haven't all these years and they are the ones who select it," Meninga said.
Predictably, Meninga doesn't get any favours from the NSW scribes during Origin campaigns but has been lauded on both sides of the border for his work in guiding Queensland to six consecutive Origin wins.
Much of the coverage is part of the interstate theatre before games but things boiled over last year when Meninga – somewhat ironically writing in his News Limited column – lashed out at Blues powerbrokers for trying to undermine the efforts of his side.
He slammed the “very rats and filth that tried to poison a monumental team with lies, personal attacks, arrogance and disrespect”.
The criteria on the next Immortal is judged solely on performance on the field and it might well be a good thing for Meninga, who went on to say he held the Australian Rugby League's Hall of Fame in higher esteem than the Rugby League Week's iconic and elite club.
"The thing about it is I actually hold the Hall of Fame more important, that's just my opinion," Meninga said.
"It goes through such a rigorous test where rugby league people from all walks get involved with that, whether it be peers or current players or media or past administrators.
"It goes through a three-tier process so to be part of that. I think holds more credit.
"I won't lose any sleep if I'm not picked. But I'd be honoured."
The panel consists of a number of current and former rugby league journalists as well as officials, coaches and historians.
Names like Ray Warren (broadcaster), Phil Rothfield (journalist), Roy Masters (coach/journalist), John Grant (ARLC), David Middleton (historian) and Wayne Bennett (coach) will have a say, along with former RLW editors Ian Heads, Norman Tasker, Tony Durkin, Geoff Prenter and Martin Lenehan.
Heads, a veteran rugby league journalist and respected author on the sport, assured Meninga that how well a player interacted with the media would have no impact on the outcome of the much-anticipated vote.
Heads said Meninga was named in the Team of the Century under the same criteria and nobody would get any favours one way or the other when the vote is cast.
"He was named in the Team of the Century, very controversially, and there was a similar panel that picked that. We had about 25 very well respected rugby league people who knew their stuff and it was done on a very democratic voting process, so that might shoot down his theory," Heads said.
"Maybe he's thinking now that his relationships have deteriorated. I'm not sure about that.
"The decisions are made only on one thing – it's to do with on-field performance.
"I don't quite know where he's coming from. That's his opinion and I respect him greatly. But it would be an objective decision."
The current Immortals line-up is Clive Churchill, Bob Fulton, Reg Gasnier, Johnny Raper, Graeme Langlands, Wally Lewis and Arthur Beetson.