In a quiet corner of an innercity bar yesterday, Wanganui man Stan Baldwin was charging his glass of orange juice to an Aussie legend.
Only a few hours earlier son-in-law, rugby league superstar Mal Meninga, was also charging his glass - probably containing something stronger than orange juice - to his
Queensland team which had just won the brutal State of Origin series over NSW 2-1.
I first met Stan about a decade ago. He was a courteous, humble fellow, sporting a Canberra Raiders cap.
"What's up with the cap?" I asked, and the Meninga connection quickly unfolded.
For those non-league fans, Meninga was a Canberra - and Kangaroo - colossus until retiring in 1994 and eventually taking up coaching.
Stan yesterday recalled the time Mal became part of his extended family.
"My sister in Brisbane wanted my youngest daughter, Debbie, to go over there and work. She also wanted Debbie to meet this bloke.
"Me and the wife were reluctant because Debbie was only 17 but my sister said she would take good care of her and find her some work.
"So Debbie went over. She wasn't happy at first because my sister got her a job delivering junk mail.
"Then she met Mal, they hit it off right away, got married and had two kids."
Stan didn't have had an inkling of what Mal was to become when he first started dating Debbie.
"He was only about 19 and was about to leave Brisbane and join the Canberra Raiders league team," said Stan.
Mal quickly stamped his class, and in the following 15 years or so became one of the game's greats - and a wealthy one at that.
"I'm not surprised he's become a good coach. He's a nice fella is Mal, great with people. But he won't stand for any nonsense, as those Queensland boys probably found out," said Stan.
"When I first met him I thought to myself 'my poor little daughter. He was such a huge bloke.'"
And popular too.
"I remember one time when I went over to visit him and Debbie. Mal and I went for a walk around Brisbane and I must have shaken the hand of everyone in the street. He's that popular," said Stan.
Stan and Mal keep in touch by phone and Mal sometimes drop in for a short holiday in Auckland, where Stan's eldest daughter, Brenda, lives.
"He can't stay too long. He's got a number of businesses back in Aussie to look after."
