Additionally he is one of five players, along with Wally Lewis, Peter Sterling, Brett Kenny and Gene Miles, who were members of the undefeated 1982 and 1986 tours, known as 'the Invincibles' and 'the Unbeatables' respectively.

A year later however Meninga reached the 1981 Brisbane Rugby League season grand final with Souths, who defeated the Redcliffe Dolphins 13–9.

According to BBC commentators Ray French and former Great Britain halfback Alex Murphy, the Lions players simply could not handle the 'Man Mountain' Meninga.

On 11 May 1985 Meninga added further silverware, scoring two memorable long-range tries as St Helens defeated Hull Kingston Rovers 36–16 in the Premiership Final.

[24] Meninga didn't manage to serve a second spell at Knowsley Road, for a variety of reasons, not least being a succession of injuries (three broken arms suffered in 1987 and 1988 respectively) that also punctuated his career in Australia.

[25] Yet he remains a legendary figure in international rugby league, and his season at St Helens has been described as the most significant of any overseas import in Britain.

[26] In 1986, Meninga and teammate Gary Belcher left Southern Suburbs to play for the Canberra Raiders in the New South Wales Rugby League.

Despite suffering a broken arm in a sickening collision with the goal posts in the Raider's Round 10 match with Manly-Warringah at the Raiders then home ground Seiffert Oval and subsequently missing 10 weeks (including Queensland's successful 1987 State of Origin series and the one-off test loss against New Zealand), Meninga returned to play in Canberra's 18–8 loss to Manly in that year's Grand Final at the SCG, the last ever Grand Final to be held at the ground.

[citation needed] His third also saw him miss a place in Australia's 25–12 win over New Zealand in the World Cup final at Eden Park in Auckland at the end of the 1988 season.

In the post season Meninga travelled with the Raiders to England and captained the team in their 30–18 loss to a Martin Offiah inspired Widnes in the 1989 World Club Challenge at Old Trafford.

Meninga successfully returned to top level representative football in 1989, playing for Queensland in their State of Origin series whitewash of NSW (though he did suffer an eye socket injury in the second game in Sydney which kept him out of the third), before being selected to the mid-season tour of New Zealand.

With only a couple of minutes remaining and the scores locked at 10 all, his Raiders teammate Ricky Stuart raced through a gap in the tired Lions defence and sprinted 70 metres upfield.

Also in 1990, Meninga's deeds in leading the successful Kangaroo tour saw him named as Britain's BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year, the first rugby league player to win it.

At the end of the 1991 season after the Raiders had lost 19–12 to Penrith in the Grand Final, Meninga captained the Australians for their tour of Papua New Guinea which included a 2–0 test series win over the Kumuls.

After Canberra's salary cap problems at the end of 1991 which saw them lose a number of fringe players as well as some veterans (though most, including Meninga, agreed to actually take a pay cut in order to keep the side together), the Raiders missed the finals for the first time since 1986 when they finished 12th in 1992.

Meninga's form continued though, captaining Queensland in the 1992 State of Origin series (NSW won 2–1) as well as Australia's successful Ashes defence against the touring Great Britain Lions.

At the end of the 1992 season, Meninga captained Australia to their 10–6 win over Great Britain in the World Cup final in front of a record international test crowd of 73,631 at Wembley Stadium in London.

The Raiders came back strongly in 1993, with their international stars Meninga, Ricky Stuart, Laurie Daley, Bradley Clyde and Steve Walters, as well as try scoring Fijian Noa Nadruku (22 tries for the season) leading the way.

They lost their last minor round game to Canterbury-Bankstown 32–8, before meekly going out in straight sets in the finals with losses to eventual Grand Finalists St George and premiers Brisbane.

Meninga though was forced to miss the first test at the Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland as he had been suspended for 2 weeks for the use of an elbow to Manly-Warringah's Welsh import centre John Devereux in the Raiders Round 10 match with the Sea Eagles at Brookvale Oval.

On 4 December 1994, at the Stade de la Méditerranée in Béziers, France, Mal Meninga captained Australia to a record 74–0 victory over a very weak French team, scoring the final try of the game, and of his career.

Former teammate and coach of the London Broncos, Gary Grienke was hopeful of bringing Meninga to his club for a swansong season,[26] but this did not eventuate.

The following year, he received the Centenary Medal "for service as a role model and inspiration as a rugby league footballer of the highest standard".

After Canberra failed to make the finals of the 2001 NRL season, finishing fourth-last (11th out of 14 teams), Meninga was replaced by Matthew Elliott as Raiders coach.

[34] The weekend after Queensland won its sixth straight series, Mal Meninga penned a column in Brisbane's The Sunday Mail attacking the NSW media and match review panel, and labelling them "rats and filth"[37] after he believed that they [the NSW media] had tried to sabotage his side's attempts at winning their sixth successive series by charging Johnathan Thurston and David Taylor with on-field incidents (only the latter was suspended) and also attacking NSW coach Ricky Stuart over his decision not to reveal the Blues line-up up to one hour before kick-off (which is when the official team lists must be released prior to a match).

He was set to face legal action from the NRL's match review panel over his now controversial column, but after negotiations with them on 1 August 2011, the matter was resolved.

This was the third consecutive opponent of Meninga in State of Origin coaching to have been a teammate of the 1990 Winfield Cup Grand Final-winning Canberra side.

On 2 December 2015, Meninga was appointed as the head coach of the Australian national rugby league team, succeeding Tim Sheens.

[44][45] On Monday 24 September 2001, after being asked why he was standing, he pulled out mid-sentence, stating, "And the thing about that is, I guess, I was a public figure and I was put on the podium where I was just a person out there ...

[53] Mal Meninga's brother Bevan served 21 years in jail for the 1991 murder of Sunshine Coast teenager Cheree Richardson.