The Australian Rugby League chief executive Geoff Carr believes Mal Meninga will have to relinquish his role as Queensland State of Origin coach if he is offered the Australian team job.
Meninga is favourite to land the vacant Kangaroos job in the wake of Ricky Stuart standing aside over his abusive outburst at match officials following the World Cup final loss.
Meninga, says he'd "seriously consider" the national team role if the opportunity arose but acknowledged he didn't think it would be possible to do both the Queensland and Australian team jobs.
Queensland would be reluctant to lose Meninga as he is set to chase a record-breaking fourth straight Origin series triumph over New South Wales next year.
However Carr has made it clear the ARL's unlikely to allow a coach to do both Origin and Kangaroos coaching as it could raise concerns about perceptions of bias in national team selection.
