Mal Meninga. Photo / Getty Images
Queensland coach Mal Meninga has launched a scathing attack on New South Wales league powerbrokers, claiming they tried to "destroy a dynasty" by undermining the Maroons' State of Origin team.
In his Sunday newspaper column, Meninga slams the "very rats and filth that tried to poison a monumental team with
lies, personal attacks, arrogance and disrespect".
The coach, who guided Queensland to their sixth straight Origin series victory last Wednesday over New South Wales, claimed "faceless men of influence" had decided the Maroons' success was "detrimental to the health of the game".
Meninga said discrepancies in judiciary rulings as well as personal attacks on his coaching style were part of a "malicious and orchestrated" smear campaign.
He also criticised NSW captain Paul Gallen for blaming referees instead of giving credit to a superior team and blasted the media's portrayal of Ricky Stuart's decision to conceal the make-up of his team for game three until an hour before kickoff.
Meninga, 51, did not point the finger at individuals but seemed to vent his anger at Sydney's media, the NSW Blues and powerbrokers within the game itself.
"They are the ones who dragged the spotlight off the game on the field and on to the judiciary with the citing of Johnathan Thurston, and who found five weeks' worth of difference in the identical tackles of David Taylor and Akuila Uate," Meninga wrote in the Sunday Mail.
"They are the ones who criticise Queensland's two closed training sessions as a refusal to promote the game, yet give their blessing to the NSW decision not to name its team until an hour before kickoff - the first time in Origin history.
"They are the ones who have the hide to label Queensland - a team built on the twin pillars of respect and humility - arrogant in victory and whingers in defeat, but offer nothing when their captain places the loss of the series at the feet of the referees, instead of acknowledging superior opponents. For them, the self-appointed keepers of the game, rugby league's health depended on NSW winning this year.
"That is what made me and others targets of personal attacks this year, conceived by puppets and driven by smarter people with their own interests at heart," he said. "I know I will never forget what they did," he said.
- AAP
