It was more like a catch up between two old friends than a battle for a psychological advantage when Mal Meninga and Laurie Daley fronted the media ahead of Wednesday’s State of Origin opener in Sydney on Monday.
The two old Canberra teammates walked into a packed Messenger room at Rugby League Central together and after sparring with the press for 20 minutes walked out with the Queensland mentor playfully squeezing the back of Daley’s shoulders with both hands.
It was all very different to the build-up to the last five series where Meninga faced two other former Canberra comrades in Ricky Stuart and Craig Bellamy – two of the most intense and competitive men in the game.
Stuart in particular seemed to take great pleasure in winding Meninga up before battle and their friendship was stretched to breaking point as the Maroons coach bit at comments directed at him or his side from south of the Tweed – leading to his infamous 2011 rant about the “rats and the filth” who ran the game in NSW.
That led to the comical situation of Stuart and Meninga refusing to announce times for their pre-match press conferences ahead of game three last year until they knew what the other was doing in a bid to get in first with the verbal jabs.
The atmosphere after the game on June 5 will almost certainly be different this year, but after lending their support to a new NRL mental wellness campaign called `What’s Your State of Mind’, Daley and Meninga were calm, relaxed and positively cheerful on Monday.
Meninga waxed lyrical about Cooper Cronk’s odd claims of an outer-body experience in last year’s decider and talked about aliens in UFOs delivering pre-match speeches to his Maroons.
Daley recalled his old teammate running over him on his Origin debut in 1988 before Meninga quickly reminded everyone how his rival got him back with a match-winning performance in the Queenslander’s farewell game in 1994.
Meninga playfully refused to answer questions about how his side had prepared and Daley said he wasn’t interested in putting the wind up the Maroons like his predecessor.
All in all it was a cordial affair – but someone will have to lose on Wednesday – so all that could change for game two in Brisbane later this month.
