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Moderation is often cited as the secret to a long and fulfilling life. Semi-regular exercise. The odd glass of red wine. Precious time with family and friends. And no more than a sprinkling of Cameron Munster.
But then again, it’s hard to turn down an existence offered by State of Origin game two. This was an exhilarating glimpse into excess. Of gladiatorial brutality interspersed with slapstick comedy. Of breakouts and comebacks. Of captain Munster, spearheading a Queensland performance very much in his image.
This was a match of extremes. Heavy favourite versus underdog long-shot. The Maroons could not be stopped in the first half. Origin’s largest Blues comeback fell narrowly short in the second. There were fireworks amid flooding rains.
It was a contest far from predictable. One minute the Maroons had the Blues pinned in their 20m at the end of a set. The next, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow was left cursing the slippery ball which handed NSW possession up the other end. There were countless handling errors, moments of stupidity and panic. Few gave the Maroons a chance, then they were certainties – first to win and then to lose – before they ended a frankly bonkers 80 minutes fortunate but gallant victors.
If live in-play betting were legal in Australia, this would have been the match to break the bookies’ models. Just as it looked like Queensland would wilt, like their good fortune – just ask Zac Lomax – was about to run out, there was one final surprise. What was this? Munster himself, alongside the resurgent Kurt Capewell, forcing the ball loose from Blues’ titan Payne Haas with a minute left to play.
With Munster, little makes sense. Watch him on Channel Nine and there are few conventional reasons to see why any broadcaster would anoint him as their next on-screen talent. Yes, he wears an endearing grin but he stumbles over words and often says the same sentence twice in succession, a conversational instant replay. On the field, his loose hips and duck feet are a rugby league oddity. But in both arenas, Munster seems so at ease, that errors and missteps matter not. Confidence, a little like Queensland in State of Origin, must never be underestimated.
Coach Billy Slater explained he chose Munster as captain, even as his side faced Origin oblivion across a possible four-match losing streak, because “it’s his time”. There was perhaps no better stage for the five-eighth to prove it than the ground named after the telecommunications company penalised $100m on Wednesday for unconscionable conduct.
Rather than phones people didn’t need, Munster was selling three times as many dummies as any Blue. Roaming, Munster was not billed extra but instead rewarded – his try procured running a tight line off Harry Grant close to the posts. He kicked long and short, and would sometimes pop up as first receiver, but still ran more times than any of his teammates, and topped his side’s metre-count.
He may not have been perfect – the playmaker was guilty of two over-cooked grubbers as well as ruck indiscipline – but he was always hungry. In Munster’s mind, his approach is simple. “Just playing off the cuff footy, like eyes up footy,” he said after the match. “We obviously have structures in place, but when that goes out of the window, when you see opportunities – and it just takes one little moment for blokes to push in the right hole – if we execute, we execute. Sometimes we’re not going to execute.”
It may be brilliance. It may be ignorance. Munster certainly has something, some hard-to-put-your-finger-on quality. Less an X-factor, more a WTF-actor. But beneath the lairy exterior is a deeply loyal team-mate. He showed both qualities at the final whistle, when discussing the man who made him captain. “We needed to turn up for our coach tonight and we fucking did,” Munster said, to almost four million Australians.
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This, Billy, is all your doing. There is a reason Craig Bellamy overlooked the mercurial No 6 for the Melbourne Storm captaincy when he handed it to Harry Grant last year. Munster has over his career let many down, as in the low-point of his white powder scandal in 2020. He admits he has spent most of his 30 years with the attitude of a child. He says it has taken three kids of his own to finally grow up. Two hip surgeries in the off-season would make anyone feel youth is slipping away.
Game three will determine if it is, as Slater believes, truly Munster’s time. Queensland’s No 6 has already won NRL premierships and Origin shields. But he will find no greater achievement than guiding this underdog Maroons side to a series victory in Sydney.
He is halfway there, thanks to Wednesday’s epic described as a “heart stopper” by Slater. The night’s emotion also made Munster look within. He admitted he had been hurt hearing his coach and former Storm and Origin teammate cop weeks of media criticism, and that moment – sitting alongside Slater at a triumphant press conference an hour after the whistle – was the best time to share those feelings. “I’d never tell him that, but I’m probably telling him now,” he said. “And I love him.”
