{"id":33673,"date":"2025-07-31T00:15:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T00:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33673\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T00:15:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T00:15:13","slug":"meninga-opens-up-on-proposed-eligibility-rule-change-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33673\/","title":{"rendered":"Meninga opens up on proposed eligibility rule change – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ever-polarising State of Origin<\/a> eligibility debate has caught wind once again, after it was announced the ARLC would be reviewing potential rule changes.<\/p>\n

While many notable NRL<\/a> figures have given their two cents on the matter, perhaps none have held as much weight as the opinion of Immortal Mal Meninga<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking to SENQ Breakfast, the incoming former Queensland Maroons<\/a> and Australia<\/a> Kangaroos coach gave his thoughts on the eligibility rules.<\/p>\n

“The demographics of our game has changed, hasn’t it?,” he told SENQ Breakfast.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got over 50 per cent of Pacific Islanders and Kiwis playing in the competition.<\/p>\n

“It has markedly changed from those old eligibility rules.”<\/p>\n

\"Report:BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – JUNE 15: Queensland Maroons<\/a> Coach Mal Meninga<\/a> (L) and former Maroons<\/a> player Mark Coyne watch on during a Queensland Maroons<\/a> Origin Captain’s run at Suncorp Stadium on June 15, 2010 in Brisbane, Australia<\/a>. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Meninga noted that the current crop of superstar players is more multicultural than ever before.<\/p>\n

He discussed the financial contrast between playing Origin and representing your country, which he believes needs to play a factor in the entire process.<\/p>\n

“The Origin players get paid really, really well, don’t they?\u201d Meninga highlighted.<\/p>\n

“So as a player, when you start thinking about who you want to play for internationally, I think Origin becomes that beat that everyone wants because obviously it’s got high profile, but also it pays very well.<\/p>\n

“The monetary reward for playing for your country has to improve, and it has to match Origin.”<\/p>\n

While he touched on the glaring difference between the benefits of Origin and international representation, his view on how the eligibility rules should look was fairly concrete.<\/p>\n

“If you’re born in Australia<\/a>, that’s when you can play Origin,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t believe that if you come to Australia<\/a> before the age of 13, that you’re able to play for Queensland or New South Wales.<\/p>\n

“That’s my belief, no tears. They’re two different games.”<\/p>\n

He went on to discuss the core values of State of Origin<\/a>, highlighting the importance of maintaining tradition despite the growing international representation in our game.<\/p>\n

“From an eligibility point of view, State of State of Origin<\/a>, it’s around being Australian,” Meninga declared.<\/p>\n

No official ruling has been made on the proposed eligibility rule switch; however, with the ARLC vocal on their stand on a potential change, there could be some fresh faces in the Origin arena sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ever-polarising State of Origin eligibility debate has caught wind once again, after it was announced the ARLC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-33673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}