Kangaroos coach, Mal Meninga, sounded a warning concerning a proposal from native Australian football stars to train their own representative team, saying that only white players would end up representing their country.
The legend of Canberra Raiders and Queensland responded to the comments of the football star of the First Nations football, Dean Widders, who called for training on one Aboriginal side to play in the Pacific Championships.
“ We saw last year at the World Cup, in men, Cody Walker, Latrell Mitchell, Josh Addo-Carr, some of our great star players … They all sits on the sidelines ”, said Widders on Nitv’s Over the Black Dot Footy Show.
“They watched these international games, which is the largest platform in the rugby league … So we have to find a platform for our players at the highest level.
“I think we should have a team in the Pacific Cup.
Meninga said that if the plan was implemented, this would mean that the national kangaroos team would only become white, because Polynesian background players who were born in Australia are choosing more and more representation of nations such as Tonga, Samoa and Cook Islands, which is authorized by virtue of international admissibility rules.
Kangaroos coach, Mal Meninga (right), was unleashed during a proposal that would see Aboriginal Australians forming their own international representation team
The football star, Dean Widders (illustrated to play for Souths), wants to see the side created in order to give a platform of First Nations stars to play “ at the highest level ”
Meninga believes that the idea of Widders – combined with original LNR stars in Australia choosing countries like the Samoa – would have the effect of making Kangaroos a entirely white team (photo, Cameron Munster and Nathan Cleary celebrate the victory of Australia in 2022)
“At one point, we must make a decision: are we first Australian?” Meninga said on Fox Sports.
“It is not lacking in respect for the first nations people because they play a really important role in our history but also a really important role in our game.
“If a first nations person by Heritage is good enough to be chosen from the Australian team, we do it. So I don’t think there is a bias.
“I have history of the islanders of the South Australian Sea, but all my cousins are First Nations peoples.
“But I consider that we are the Australians first.
“I choose Latrell Mitchell and I choose Josh Addo-Carr in my football teams … So we have eternal respect for First Nations people in football teams.
“So I don’t agree, they don’t get a platform to excel. I think they do it.
In recent weeks, Brisbane and the NSW star, Payne Haas – who has played four games for Australia – admitted that he was planning to change his allegiance to the Samoa.
Meninga stressed that indigenous stars like Latrell Mitchell (photo of the third right) already get a platform to excel when selected for Kangaroos
Payne Haas (photo) played for Queensland and Australia, but was linked to the transmission of her allegiance to Samoa
The Queensland and Dolphins star Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, who has also exhausted for kangaroos, also said that he would like to represent the Samoa, where his father was born.
Gold Coast Tino Fa’asuamaleaui striker – who played for Queensland and Australia – also plans to make the same change.
The star of Tigers, born in Sydney, Jarome Luai, began to represent the Samoa in 2017, with other original LNR stars in Australia like Andrew Fifita and Paul Alamoti who choose to play for Tonga.
Meninga described the situation with players like Haas as “frustrating”, but said that he would never keep himself on a player’s path if they decided to change allegiances.
However, he said that the game needed strength stars to choose a nation and stick to it.
“I do not believe that guys should be able to go back and forth,” said Meninga.
“What I would like to see is that each player calls the country for which they want to play from their first recording in the LNR.
“In this way, there is no confusion around whom they are eligible.
“When they make the LNR and they have to make a difficult decision on test football, they must make a call.”
The current rules allow the stars to switch between the representation of level 1 nations Australia, England and New Zealand, and the countries of level 2 Tonga, Samoa, France and Papuasie-Nouvelle-Guinée.
