Richie Barnett: How we got parity with the Kangaroos

Benji Marshall trains at Skilled Stadium on the Gold Coast yesterday. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

All the talk about the Anzac test is that we always do badly. Yes, history says just that, and there is no getting around it. But I was involved in a lot of those games and we were never prepared right.

We'd have players coming over from England a couple of hours before the match, players playing out of position, players pulling out and new players being called in at the last minute.

Times have changed. The Kiwis now have an abundance of quality players. They have a settled side. And in Stephen Kearney they have a coach who comes from a background all about developing really strong systems.

The team that plays tonight is thoroughly familiar with those systems. It has a strong spine of players who have been together for a while now and they should be able to slot back in and do their jobs. Given the short preparation time, that is crucial.

Australia have always had a huge advantage in that area. So many of their players run together in State of Origin. Aside from Brett Morris, the Kangaroos will field an all-Queensland backline.

It's not rocket science as to why they have done extremely well when the two international teams are thrown together at short notice.

But now the Kiwis have players who have been together for three or four seasons. They are starting to close that gap. Hopefully this is where it starts in terms of Anzac test success.

Kearney's coaching should help. It's very much out of the St George/Melbourne Storm school of thought. There is nothing flash. Everybody knows their role, it comes down to how well they execute it.

If the Kiwis can keep it close, hopefully the individual brilliance of the likes of Benji Marshall and Jason Nightingale out wide can come into play.

But the hard graft has to come first. There's no doubt Australia has some brilliant players who will test the Kiwis' defence to the limit.

Even with the likes of Johnathan Thurston and Billy Slater in the Kangaroos side, I feel the biggest threat could come from Justin Hodges. The Broncos centre is such a brilliant runner he can make a fool out of just about any defender.

The decision to put Simon Mannering on him rather than the super-aggressive Steve Matai or the attacking Junior Sa'u looks like a coin flip to me.

Yes, Mannering has done the job before and done it well. But can he do it again or will he be exposed?

Kiwis backrowers Adam Blair, Bronson Harrison and Jeremy Smith are tireless workers and they are going to have to play out of their skins to cover the gaps, because the Kangaroos are going to come at us with a lot of options and a lot of tempo.

But we have plenty of muscle and aggression in the middle with which to counter that attack. The Kiwis' recent successes have come from defending strongly and staying in the game.

It used to be that the Kangaroos would know that if the game stayed close they would pull out the win. We would match them and match them, but they'd always get us in the end. Not any more. We've turned that corner.

These days if it is close at the death it will be the Kangaroos starting to think "uh-oh, here we are again". And the Kiwis will know in their hearts they have done it before and can do it again.