As the head coach of the Queensland State of Origin team, Mal Meninga has delivered many important messages to his players.
Usually these are made in an adrenalin-charged dressing room, but today’s was provided from inside the Daisy Hill IGA as part of the Queensland Rugby League’s “Be Maroon, Be Healthy” campaign.
The Origin coach joined representative forward Corey Parker, QRL chairman Peter Betros and excited players from the Slacks Creek Junior Rugby League Club to announce the QRL had teamed up with IGA to launch Maroons ‘flavoured’ fruit packs.
“This is all about spreading the healthy eating message to families and in particular our children,” Meninga said.
“Now that we’re only three weeks out from the start of this year’s State of Origin series, it’s an ideal time to reinforce the critical role that great nutrition plays for not only professional athletes, but for people and families from all walks of life.
“Rugby league is the perfect vehicle to drive awareness of healthy eating as this message is in line with the game’s other values like wellbeing and exercise.”
Each purchase will come with a Maroons Collector Card featuring some of the game’s biggest names, including Johnathan Thurston, Sam Thaiday, Daly Cherry-Evans and Greg Inglis. There are 19 cards to collect in total.
Current fruit packages include mandarins, apples, pears, avocados and oranges and over time, the range will expand.
You can find the Maroons pre-packaged fruit and vegetables for the family at participating IGA stores throughout Queensland.
A portion of the purchase price will be returned to QRL to support rugby league development programs.