The Kangaroos coach has given his take on Michael Maguire’s shock call at the Broncos.
Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga says the Broncos have made the right call not picking Ezra Mam to make his NRL return on Friday night, as new details emerge about Brisbane’s reasons for overlooking the 22-year-old. Mam was available for selection in the round 10 game away to the Rabbitohs after serving a nine-game ban for a drug-driving incident in the off-season that also saw him disqualified from driving for six months and slapped with $120,000 in fines.
A magistrate told the Broncos playmaker he was lucky not to have killed anyone when he crashed into an Uber containing a mother and child, as well as the driver. The Brisbane five-eighth pleaded guilty in court and was banned from driving for six months and copped an $850 fine, but many critics argued the punishment was too lenient.
Broncos legend and club director Darren Lockyer warned last month that Mam’s lack of game time could see him eased back into the NRL. And Meninga says overlooking Mam was the right move from Maguire to ensure the playmaker – who has been banned from playing footy at all levels – gets some valuable playing time under his belt before being thrust back into first grade.
Mal Meninga agrees with call to ease Ezra Mam back
“Ezra has obviously proved himself at the elite level,” Meninga told SENQ Breakfast. “He’s a great player but I think he (Maguire) is doing the right thing. “If you have been a consistent first grader, of course you just want to jump back into the first team.
“It’s up to what the coach thinks and what he believes is good for the team. It would be good to have Ezra back because he’s an enthusiastic player and he has that high speed game. I reckon he plays just one game in the Queensland Cup and then he will come back.”
Theory emerges about why Ezra Mam’s return was held back
While Mam’s lack of footy would be the obvious reason he’s not playing in the NRL this week, there are suggestions the Broncos didn’t want the controversial star’s return to overshadow the NRL’s Women in League Round. Veteran league reporter Phil Rothfield revealed on his Off the Record podcast with fellow league journo Andrew Webster that Mam was in line to be included in Brisbane’s squad until “internal pressure” from within the club saw him eventually drop out.
“It’s because it’s Women in League Round,” Rothfield said. “That’s the mail I’m getting. I made calls on Tuesday about whether he would be in the side. Some very good sources at the Broncos informed us that he was on an extended bench. That was 11am. Then the teams came out and he was nowhere to be seen.
“My information is there was internal pressure, with it being Women in League, that it wouldn’t be the right look. He also hadn’t played footy for a long time… When you consider a four-year-old girl was left with a fractured hip in that car incident. Her mum was in the car. She was badly shaken. He had cocaine in his system, he was unlicensed, he veered to the wrong side of the road.”