Mal Meninga, who has overseen the greatest QLD domination of the Origin series in history, has stepped down from the role in order to take up a full time role as coach of the national side.

Despite criticism of the high priced role, the majority of league experts have agreed that the future immortal is the man for the job.

The former Canberra, QLD and Kangaroo legend will reportedly pocked $300,000 a season to guide the side into the relative few fixtures they play each season.

The new fulltime role has been created with an eye to ensuring the Kangaroos are fully focused and motivated in retaining the NRL World Cup in two years side.

Both the New Zealanders and English national sides have closed the gap to world champion Roos recently, with New Zealand currently holding the four nations trophy.

The Kangaroos gain has been the QLD Origin side’s loss as in order to accept the role, Meninga had to vacate his coaching position as coach of the all-conquering Maroons.

There are almost six months between now and Origin One, which leaves QLD with more than enough time to appoint a new coach.

With plenty of possible candidates the question turns to who should step up into the vacated role?

The obvious answer would be current QLD assistant coach and former Knights mentor Michael Hagan.

There have been suggestions in the past that Hagan has handled the day-to-day coaching of the side, while Meninga acts mainly as a motivator.

If there is any truth to this, surely the decision to elevate Hagan to the lead coaching role is a quick and easy one to make.

Hagan has years of experience as an assistant at this level, as well as over 200 games of NRL coaching experience due to stints at the Knights and Eels.

If the system needs a QLD legend to help motivate the side to work, surely Darren Lockyer, Gordon Tallis or one of the Walters brothers can fill that void.

Organisations hate to break up winning formulas and combinations, and given the success of QLD over the years, the smart money is on Hagan being promoted into the role.

Former NRL coaches such as Geoff Toovey and Ivan Cleary are available and would be more than capable of taking over the role, however I don’t see the QLDRL appointing a NSW’man to the role.

Given the success of the Walker brothers with the Jets, every time a vacant coaching role comes up their names are mentioned.

I’m confident you can rule a line through their name as surely QLD won’t appoint a coach without some experience at the top level.

There has also been a move to appointing standalone coaches recently, which probably rules out the likes of Wayne Bennett.

There will be some level of debate over who should be appointed but I can only see one real option and that is the common sense one.

Michael Hagan moves into a role many believe he already fills, and a QLD Origin legend is appointed as a lead motivator.

The irony of the draw

It’s a little ironic that the television deal, which delivered Channel 9 the ultimate power in scheduling Thursday, Friday and Sunday games, is the reason for both player burnout fears and the reason they were able to agree on a new funding deal.

For those who don’t know how it works, Channel 9 gets first call on the fixtures for their live games, then Foxtel have their pick.

The games are scheduled to maximise ratings, therefore return on investment in terms of ad revenue and subscriptions.

This is why Channel 9 is rarely left with a low rating fixture, and why Super Saturday on Fox is usually headlined by the better game of the three.

Channel 9, unintentionally, heavily contributed to the unbalanced draw that sees Manly and the Roosters cop more short turnarounds than the big rating Bunnies and Broncos.

It is the very same big money deal which allowed 9 so much power that will contribute to any future rise in funding and then the salary cap.

If the NRL and their players wanted to maximise income, they had to hand over power to channel 9 and Fox to do so.

This is set to change next year when the NRL takes total control of the draw.

In 2016, players will have to grit their teeth and accept that the very same reason the salary cap was raised is the same reason they might be forced into regular short turnarounds.

Dog swap

Plenty of people took to social media to question the reported decision by the Bulldogs to move Tim Lafai on to sign Will Hopoate.

Hopoate’s talent can’t be denied but I think plenty, myself included, are guilty of grading him on his form for Manly prior to his two-year break.

Lafai didn’t have the greatest 2015, but his form in 2014 was outstanding. Hopoate hasn’t had a great time of it since his return to the game.

It’s a big gamble. It may work out and leave us red faced, but Lafai is a player surely to be in hot demand.

The biggest concern coming out of Belmore based fan accounts seems to be the likely defensive combination between Sam Perrett and the incoming Hopoate.

If I was a betting man, my money would be on that side being the one targeted next season by opponents.

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