Australia's decision to appoint a fulltime coach is a double-edged sword. As canvassed in a previous column, it shows the NRL is serious about international football.

But in restoring the dominance of the green and gold, the NRL could wreck what has suddenly become compelling about the international scene: competitiveness.

In a recent interview, recounted in League Express by colleague Malcolm Andrews, Meninga spoke about establishing an Australia A side.

This would be absolutely disastrous for the international game as it would be full of players who are eligible for other countries, duplicating at international level the predatory recruiting NSW and Queensland.

Consider this: Anthony Milford (Queensland Under 20s), Tyson Frizell (Country Origin) and Kane Evans (City Origin) have already been forced to put minor domestic rep teams ahead of playing for Samoa, Wales and Fiji respectively.

What sort of sport does that? What sort of sport puts winning state games several years from now ahead of current international competition?

The basic flaw in the thinking of Meninga and some at the NRL is that if we bring back the Kangaroos against St Helens, everything will as they were 20 years ago.

I've got news for those people. The world has moved on. Sports fans in Australia have moved on.

After the Socceroos making World Cups and the Wallabies playing in Chicago, they aren't going to go back to Max Krilich gracing the Watersheddings. Won't happen.

But there is this weird doublethink at play: fans lost interest in international football because Australia were too dominant … but now we have convinced ourselves they are uninterested because Australia ISN'T dominant.

The truth is, Sydney has lost interest in international rugby league permanently. The Kangaroos just can't compete with the Wallabies or the Socceroos because of the lack of depth of competition and Sydney is obsessed with itself being a "world city".

Making the Australian team "great again" will just make Sydney care even less.

The Australian team brand can be saved elsewhere, particularly in Brisbane where they remain a lucrative draw, and in Melbourne where the State government will build us stadiums in return for sending the Roos there.

The next Anzac Test is apparently going to be in Perth. Great. The Australian team has a great future as emissaries for the sport outside Sydney if managed carefully.

But the way to rebuild international football is not for Australia to 'do an Origin' and nick every available player who could be representing another country.

Put bluntly, international rugby league will only realise its potential in the coming years if Australia deliberately handicaps itself and props up its rivals.

That means Origin players being permitted to represent other countries. It means NO Australia A. It means internationals every year, not just when the players feel like it. The NRL already pays the Kiwis when they play the green and golds - the same should apply for other full internationals.

Basically, the sport needs the NRL to make decisions, over and over again, that may well result in Australia losing Test matches. The NRL's objectives and Australia's objectives in this area should be completely different - which is why the chairman of the NRL should not read out the Australian team.

Meninga should be in charge of a independent performance team and the NRL should be doing as much to reign in the excesses of Australia as it does for the Brisbane Broncos or Sydney Roosters, with the same objective - to encourage even competition and an uncertainty of results.

Mal, meanwhile, has to decide if his priority is to make international rugby league great again, or Australia great again.

Times have changed. You absolutely cannot have both.

Vale Brian Johnson

I found out about the death of the former St George fullback Brian Johnson after returning home from the Bowie street party in Brixton on Monday night.

While I never 'got' Bowie and felt like an imposter among his disciples, the loss of Johnson cut me to the core. He was not only one of my favourite players as a kid but he was my PE teacher at Port Kembla High.

I remember him as a teacher and a hero, not as someone I interviewed because I think I only ever did that twice. Condolences to all who knew him.

Podcast

Book

Daily blog

Forum