The Roar have a nice take on Big Mal Meninga leaping back into the limelight with his behind bar misdemeanours:
With the Queensland selectors failing to rouse the public’s imagination with the dropping of two loyal players and selection of a third superstar halfback just to brag, the battle of the pre-match mind games seemed a foregone conclusion.
But then cometh the moment, cometh the Mal.
Sensing the gravity of the situation, Meninga once again steeled himself, had once last juicy fresh mandarin, and took it upon himself to lead his side to glory.
Yes, just like he did in the dying moments of the second Test at Old Trafford on the 1990 Kangaroo tour, Mal bumped his way to the promised land to alter the course of a series.
Straight away you can imagine the mood in camp Maroon changing.
Every press conference for the upcoming week has suddenly switched from boring QandA about Daly Cherry Evans’ purebred Labradoddle to queries about Mal’s bar shenanigans.
The SMH has a straighter take.