With Mal Meninga to reportedly be named the Perth Bears’ inaugural coach, a former assistant has given a hilarious insight into why the rugby league Immortal will succeed as head of the NRL’s 17th franchise.

Neil Henry and Meninga spent four years together with the Maroons and during camp ahead of Game III in 2008, the group watched the iconic Australian film ‘The Castle’.

Travelling to the game at Sydney Olympic Park, Queensland’s bus suddenly pulled over.

FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every game of every round in the 2025 NRL Telstra Premiership, LIVE with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer >

Michael Caton — the actor who played Darryl Kerrigan, the father in the quirky movie family — stepped onboard.

“We’d actually watched ‘The Castle’, it was on as an iconic movie in camp and no one thought much about it,” Henry told foxsports.com.au.

“Then as we were on the way to Origin, the bus pulled in and there was a guy standing at the bus stop. It was Michael Caton.

“He jumped on the bus, (said), ‘We’re going to Bonnie Doon’, and we were on the way to Origin.

“It was just something to lighten the mood, it’s a game you needed to win down in Sydney played at ANZ Stadium.

“A few young players in our team, it has taken their mind off the game and we got a win, it was just something he thought of which was quite funny.

“Everyone can reflect on it and say, ‘Where did you come up with that?’ but it certainly worked coming into what was a crucial game.”

Queensland claimed that decider 16-10 on enemy soil, coming back from a game down to seal their third consecutive series win during the dynasty years.

Meninga’s coaching resume is impressive, winning nine out of the 10 Origin series he coached, which included eight straight between 2006 to 2013.

He has also won the 2017 and 2021 World Cups with Australia, while having a 52 per cent win rate across 125 games with the Raiders in clubland from 1997-2001.

But his last NRL experience was a quarter-century ago and leading a new franchise shapes as the biggest test of his coaching career, especially in an area dominated by the AFL in Western Australia.

Interestingly, Henry knows first-hand that rugby league can be a success in Perth, coaching the Western Reds’ under 19s side before that franchise was dissolved.

“What he’s achieved as a player, that is significant. He’s always been about the players first, and he’s very community-minded as well,” Henry said.

“He has a holistic approach to his coaching. The thing that he is able to generate is that environment where players want to work for each other. He’s big on club culture.

“He’s certainly community minded… connection to the local community, which I think given any sort of reinvention of a team (in Perth)… it had a great community happening.

“So I think that his strengths is that connection to community and right from grassroots right through. He knows that you need to foster that and get the community on side.

“As well, obviously, he had been a high achiever in the game and to do that he’s worked hard. He’s had a work ethic.

“So I think he gets both sides of the equation from that player perspective and that management perspective.”

As far as employing a figurehead of the game to spearhead a new franchise, there’s not many names better known than Meninga.

He captained the Raiders to three premierships and played in five grand finals, standing alongside the greats of the game in his time with the Maroons and Kangaroos.

However, Meninga has previously been hit with criticism regarding his coaching, with claims he is merely a “figurehead” while his assistants are the real brains of the team.

Henry, being one of those assistants, put those claims to bed when asked if it was his assistants that do the coaching.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Henry explained.

“I think all head coaches have assistant coaches that have certain roles within the team and normally it can be divided up. One’s got attack, one’s got defence or one looks after the forwards, one the backs.

“But certainly even when I was a head coach we had responsibilities within that where I had assistant coaches look at those aspects of the game and then we’d collaborate.

“He’s no different in that. But he is certainly hands-on on the field as well. We could say something like that about Wayne Bennett as we talk about the managers.

“I see them as very similar in being a manager, but you have your assistant coaches underneath that too. But Wayne certainly knows what he wants and Mal will know what he wants his team to look like.”

For Henry, the best coaches know how to “delegate”.

“Because their picture is broader than just the nuts and bolts of coaching,” he said.

“Your assistant coaches have that connection with the players and they’re able to work like that but ultimately the buck stops with the head coach.

“So there’s a lot of management to do with being a head coach whether you’re reporting to a board or you’re dealing with the media or all these other things that you do that assistant coaches don’t have to worry about.”

The last team to join the NRL also deliberately had a high-profile coach, with seven-time premiership winner Bennett leading the Dolphins as they entered the competition ahead of the 2024 season.

MORE ORIGIN NEWS

HOOPS: Massive QLD names on chopping block as ‘load of waffle’ exposed

CRAWLS: The big calls Billy must make to save QLD as ‘jury still out’ on golden boy

‘MASTERCLASS’: New-look Blues halves make Suncorp statement in 27-year first

CRAWLS’ NSW RATINGS: Haas’ epic statement blows QLD away; Edwards answers