Malcolm Norman Meninga (; born 8 July 1960) is an Australian professional rugby league coach and a former professional rugby league footballer.
He is currently the inaugural head coach of the Perth Bears franchise in the National Rugby League (NRL). Previously, Meninga coached the Australian national team, the Queensland Maroons, the Papua New Guinea national rugby league team and the Canberra Raiders.
After a lengthy career in both Australia and England, mainly as a goal-kicking , Meninga is widely regarded as one of the finest players in the game's history. Having broken numerous rugby league records, he retired with the most appearances in the history of the Australian national team, and became the top-point scorer ever in State of Origin football.
Meninga has since been honoured as a Member of the Order of Australia, inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame, and named in both Queensland's and Australia's teams of the twentieth century.
Meninga is the only player in history to be selected for four Kangaroo Tours - 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994 - appearing in every test match against Great Britain and France on all four tours. He is also the only player to captain two Kangaroo Tours (1990 and 1994). Additionally, Meninga is one of five players (along with Wally Lewis, Peter Sterling, Brett Kenny and Gene Miles) who were members of the undefeated 1982 and 1986 tours, known as 'the Invincibles' and 'the Unbeatables' respectively.
In 2018, Meninga was inducted as the 13th Immortal of rugby league.
Early life Meninga, whose father is of South Sea Islander heritage and mother is a white Australian, was born in Bundaberg, Queensland. His father, Norman Meninga, also played rugby league. He has a brother, Geoffrey Meninga.
As detailed on Who Do You Think You Are? in 2016, Meninga's great-grandfather Edward Meninga was from Tanna, Vanuatu. Meninga has often been misidentified as an Aboriginal Australian.
Meninga attended Maroochydore State High School, graduating with a Junior Certificate in 1975. He completed his Senior Certificate at the Queensland Police Academy, citing his love for TV police dramas as a key reason for joining the force, and served as an officer in the Queensland Police Service until 1985. It was during his time in the police force that Meninga met Wayne Bennett, who was serving as a constable at the time and would become one of Meninga's key mentors.
Playing career Meninga captained Australia for twenty-three Test matches between 1990 and 1994, and captained the Queensland State of Origin team for three years from 1992 to 1994. He remains the only player to captain two Kangaroo tours, in 1990 and 1994.
I'd watch in awe as Mal pulverised the opposing defensive line with his bone-crunching runs. From the safety of my spot six or seven metres away from the action, I felt grateful that I didn't have to tackle him because his giant thighs were lethal weapons. Bill Harrigan
Brisbane
Meninga made his first grade début in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership at the age of 18 with Southern Suburbs. He was selected to play for Brisbane in the 1979 Amco Cup, kicking a goal in their 5–22 final loss to Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. Meninga also made his first appearance at centre for Queensland in 1979, and the following year helped his state to win the first interstate match under State of Origin selection rules against New South Wales at Lang Park, kicking seven goals from seven attempts. Meninga was one of the last players to use the toe-poke kicking style rather than the more accurate around-the-corner style that was starting to take hold. That Origin game was on 8 July 1980, Meninga's 20th birthday. Later that year, he played for Souths in the BRL grand final, scoring a try and kicking 3 goals as the Magpies went down to Northern Suburbs 17–15. Meninga finished the 1980 season as the BRL's top points scorer, with 245 points. A year later however Meninga reached the 1981 Brisbane Rugby League season grand final with Souths, who defeated the Redcliffe Dolphins 13–9.
In 1982, he was named man-of-the-match in Game 1 of 1982 State of Origin series against New South Wales at Lang Park, and was later selected to make his test début for Australia in a test against New Zealand at the Sydney Cricket Ground, being the 540th player selected for Australia. Meninga had an unhappy game though, dislocating his elbow in the 28th minute after a crunching blindside tackle from Kiwi winger Dane O'Hara, while at the same time attempting to break a tackle from Kiwi fullback Gary Kemble. He soon recovered and played in the centres for Souths in their 17–3 loss to the Wynnum Manly Seagulls in the BRL Grand Final at Lang Park.
Post season he toured Europe with the undefeated 1982 Kangaroos, playing in all six tests on tour against Papua New Guinea, Great Britain and France. Meninga was the Kangaroos top point scorer on tour, scoring 166 from 10 tries (worth 3 points) and 68 goals, including a personal haul of 19 points (1 try, 8 goals) in the first Ashes series test against Great Britain at Boothferry Park in Hull. He then backed that up with 15 points (1 try, 6 goals) in the second test at Wigan's Central Park, before adding a further 14 points (7 goals) to his Ashes tally in the third test at Headingley in Leeds. The 1982 Kangaroos, the first touring team to go through Great Britain and France undefeated, earned the Frank Stanton coached team the nickname "The Invincibles".
Meninga continued his good form in 1983, even though Souths missed the BRL Grand Final. He played in Queensland's second straight Origin series win over NSW, while also starring for Australia in the two test series against New Zealand in mid-season.
In 1984, Meninga played a major role in an Oceania team's 54–4 victory over an Anglo-French selection in an exhibition match Paris, before returning to Brisbane after the match to continue playing for Souths. After again playing a leading role for Queensland in their third straight Origin series win over NSW, Meninga missed the first Ashes test against the touring Great Britain side, but was recalled to the team for the second and third tests of the series which Australia again won 3–0. Meninga was the BRL's top tryscorer and points scorer in the 1984 season, with 18 tries and 154 points.
Meninga continued his good form for Souths in 1985, playing in their 10–8 Grand Final win over Wynnum-Manly. 1985 also saw NSW win the Origin series for the first time, though Mal was selected for the mid-season Kangaroo Tour of New Zealand. Australia won the test series 2–1 against the Kiwis with Meninga in the centres for each test, but on a tour that had seen the NSW vs Qld rivalry come into play in an Australian team, New Zealand won the dead rubber 3rd test at Carlaw Park in Auckland 18–0.
St Helens After his displays on the 1982 Kangaroo tour, Meninga was in high demand with English club sides. For the 1984–85 Rugby Football League season he signed to play for St. Helens, who had paid around £30,000 for his services to play in the Australian off-season and he helped the club to victory in the Premiership. He was bought by BBC commentator and former Saints forward Ray French while he was in Australia covering the 1984 Great Britain Lions tour.
St Helens' rivals Wigan were also after him and had papers ready for him to sign. French had accidentally left the St Helens contract in his hotel room so asked Wigan chairman Maurice Lindsay if he could borrow his; unbelievably, the normally astute Lindsay agreed and handed over the papers. French crossed out any reference to Wigan and changed it to "St Helens" instead, stealing the star from under their noses. Mal Meninga played at and scored 2-tries in St. Helens 28–16 victory over Wigan in the 1984 Lancashire Cup Final during the 1984–85 season at Central Park, Wigan on Sunday 28 October 1984. On 11 May 1985 Meninga added further silverware, scoring two memorable long-range tries as St Helens defeated Hull Kingston Rovers 36–16 in the Premiership Final. Meninga didn't manage to serve a second spell at Knowsley Road, for a variety of reasons, not least being a succession of injuries (three broken arms suffered in 1987 and 1988 respectively) that also punctuated his career in Australia. Yet he remains a legendary figure in international rugby league, and his season at St Helens has been described as the most significant of any overseas import in Britain.
Canberra
In 1986, Meninga and teammate Gary Belcher left Southern Suburbs to play for the Canberra Raiders in the New South Wales Rugby League. Souths coach Wayne Bennett would join them at the club in 1987 as co-coach alongside Australian national coach Don Furner. Despite suffering a broken arm in a sickening collision with the goal posts in the Raider's Round 10 match with Manly-Warringah at the Raiders then home ground Seiffert Oval and subsequently missing 10 weeks (including Queensland's successful 1987 State of Origin series and the one-off test loss against New Zealand), Meninga returned to play in Canberra's 18–8 loss to Manly in that year's Grand Final at the SCG, the last ever Grand Final to be held at the ground. On an unseasonably warm day, Meninga's lack of match fitness since his return told (he had only played 60 minutes of the Preliminary final win over Eastern Suburbs the week before) and he was finally replaced by Raiders reserve back Kevin Walters midway through the second half. He scored the Raiders first points in their maiden Grand Final appearance with a penalty goal early in the second half to reduce the deficit to 6–2 after eventual Clive Churchill Medal winner Cliff Lyons had scored for the Sea Eagles before half time allowing them to take a 6–0 lead into the break.
A second broken arm before the start of the 1988 NSWRL season saw Meninga missing until Round 15. After just 4 games back for the Raiders, Meninga played for Australia in their record 70–8 win over Papua New Guinea at Wagga Wagga in country NSW, scoring two tries. Unfortunately for Meninga, after one more game for Canberra he then broke his arm for a third time in Australia's 22–10 over a Rest of the World team at the Sydney Football Stadium, putting him out for the rest of the 1988 NSWRL season. Meninga's broken arms saw him play only 17 games for the Raiders in 1987 and 1988. His third also saw him miss a place in Australia's 25–12 win over New Zealand in the World Cup final at Eden Park in Auckland at the end of the 1988 season.
After being given the Raiders' captaincy, Meninga led Canberra to their first premiership in 1989 after overcoming the Balmain Tigers 19–14 in extra time in the Grand Final, the Raiders becoming not only the first non-Sydney team to win the premiership, but also the first team to win after finishing the minor round in 4th place. In the post season Meninga travelled with the Raiders to England and captained the team in their 30–18 loss to a Martin Offiah inspired Widnes in the 1989 World Club Challenge at Old Trafford. Meninga successfully returned to top level representative football in 1989, playing for Queensland in their State of Origin series whitewash of NSW (though he did suffer an eye socket injury in the second game in Sydney which kept him out of the third), before being selected to the mid-season tour of New Zealand. After playing in the centres for the first two test wins over the Kiwis, Meninga was moved to the second-row for the third test in Auckland with great effect as he scored a try and kicked one goal to add to his 5 goals in the first test and 2 in the second.