After I wrote my thingy-ma-jig about Mal Meninga's promotion to the Kangaroos coaching job and the dust had settled, I wondered to myself what it all meant for the Kiwis. After all, Meninga's appointment had come after three straight losses to the Kiwis and the decision to upgrade the Kangaroos' coaching job from part-time to full-time signaled a strong move from Australian Rugby League to re-establish themselves as rugby league's top dawg.

Before I get on to a Kiwis' perspective, I'd like to chuck on my international rugby league boots because I like what Meninga's appointment means for international rugby league. This hit home when I heard Shaun Johnson express his opinion on the player burnout issue as he rightfully pointed out that all of this comes as the emphasis on State Of Origin (and it's profitability) reaches all-time levels. If they are so worried about player burnout, why does international rugby league fall victim while State Of Origin and 'backing up' is celebrated?

From an international perspective, Meninga's appointment signals an intention from the ARL to be better. Sure they might be putting all their eggs in making as much money from State Of Origin as they can but the desire to hire Meninga and give him a full-time/well paid role filled me with hope that the Kangaroos are at the top of the ARL's agenda.  

Not being the best international rugby league team in the world doesn't sit well with the ARL and this should be viewed as a positive for the rugby league playing world.

This leads me into the Kiwis perspective as the ARL have rightfully noted the threat that the Kiwis pose to Australia's dominance. In a way this is scary as the Kangaroos will now chase improvement as their response to the emergence of this Kiwis team has been relatively swift ... and precise. Mal Meninga was brought in to stop the Kiwis dominance because he's shown that he can do that with Queensland.

Meninga has a proven track record of integrating new faces into a team of established stars, perfectly suited to the situation the Kangaroos find themselves in. Recent victories over the Kangaroos have been built on power, speed and rugged defence, a package that is relatively new for the Kiwis and has come with the likes of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Shaun Johnson, Jason Taumalolo and Jesse Bromwich climbing the career ladder. I'd suggest that this is the perfect Kryptonite to the experienced Kangaroos who have struggled to handle a confident Kiwis team. The Kangaroos need Meninga's expertise in finding a balance between experience and youthful exuberance.

For the Kiwis to maintain their perch, they must find another gear as I can almost guarantee that the Kangaroos will be better under Meninga's guidance. This doesn't mean refreshing the Kiwis roster like the Kangaroos will do, it means finding a slight improvements in how they attack and defend. Johnson and Tuivasa-Sheck will counter Meninga's appointment by training with each other everyday with the Warriors for example, finding a completely new dimension that should in theory make the Kiwis better.

This is so fun because we've got to wait and see how the Kiwis fight off a new challenge from the Kangaroos, although we already know that the majority of the Kiwis (established Kiwis, not exactly the squad that went to England) are yet to really hit their peak. All of the Kiwis' best players have much more growth and improvement in them. 

Hitting the news recently however was NZRL CEO Phil Holden's resignation. Now I don't have an opinion either way about whether Holden was a success or a ho-hum leader of rugby league in Aotearoa, I do however know that if the ARL and NZRL were teams competing against each other, the ARL would win rather easily. There's the obvious difference in funds and resources between the two organisations, I'm more worried about how the organisations are run, their efficiency, their planning, how they get different people/groups to co-operate and so on.

The NZRL have long struggled in this department and throughout the Kiwis' reign, it's never felt like they have the world's best rugby league organisation behind them. The ARL have taken drastic measures to compete with the Kiwis and while it will be fun to see how the Kiwis respond, how the NZRL deal with change and a new challenge will be equally as intriguing.