NRL Finals: Maroons star Cameron Munster is ready to captain Melbourne in post-Cam Smith era
There was a time when Cameron Munster was in danger of being axed by Melbourne over a series of off-field dramas. Now he is poised to ‘get the C next to my name’ - and he can’t wait.
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Cameron Munster has revealed his desire to captain the Storm and says he is ready to take charge of Melbourne on and off the field if Cameron Smith announces his retirement.
With Smith entering what could be the final month of his glittering 18-year career, Munster is primed to become Melbourne’s top dog and spearhead a new era of dominance for the Storm.
There was a time when the notion of Munster captaining an NRL side seemed ludicrous.
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In 2016, Munster was slapped with a 12-month ban from the Queensland side after he was one of eight rookies embroiled in a boozy curfew breach during Queensland‘s Emerging Origin camp.
The following year, he was involved in a pub incident during Australia’s World Cup campaign and sent back to Melbourne - triggering a withering blast from Storm coach Craig Bellamy.
But three years on, Munster has morphed from larrikin to leader.
At a time when there are fears skipper Smith and coach Bellamy could be lost to the Storm over the next 12 months, Munster is ready to step up as Melbourne‘s next captain.
Earlier this season, Smith made a significant statement, approaching Bellamy and asking Munster, who turned 26 a fortnight ago, to be added to the leadership group.
“Having the ‘C’ next to my name would be a great feat,” he said ahead of Saturday night’s semi-final against the Eels at Suncorp Stadium.
“Once Smith goes then I get to hopefully run the team, fingers crossed.
“There is no doubt about it, but there are some qualities, or things, that I still need to tweak off the field. I am heading in the right direction. It shows the club and the coach believe in me, by having me in the leadership group, so that is a baby step there.
“Everyone needs to work on things and fingers crossed in the next couple of years I do have the ‘C’ next to my name.”
For all his natural talents, the beauty of Munster is his unvarnished humility.
Even when he has carved up for the Storm and helped Melbourne to the 2017 premiership, Munster will privately ask those closest to him - do you think I’m good enough to play State of Origin?
It is a sign that Munster takes nothing for granted, a reality rammed home to him during the darkest chapters of his NRL career.
“It has been a journey and I’ve had ups and downs,” he said.
“It’s time and place ... to know when to have a good time and knowing when not to have a good time.
“I’m trying to be a bit of a leader for the young blokes and talking to them about going down the right path.
“I went down a couple of wrong paths, just with alcohol. That is something I have been really talking to the boys about ... when we are not allowed to have a drink then it is about making sure everyone is accountable and not having a beer.
“It is about being a leader on the field as well and at training. That is about talking when I need to. If I see something (that needs addressing), then I need to say something. That is something I have really focused on the last eight months.”
Cooper Cronk‘s departure from the Storm at the end of 2017 imposed a new level of on-field responsibility for Munster. Suddenly, he was the main man at the Storm scrumbase.
Now, with 128 NRL games under his belt, the Maroons pivot believes he can get better, taking cues from Smith’s relentless quest for perfection at age 37.
“You never can rest on your merits and think you have done enough in the game to think you are a good player,” he said.
“Look at Cameron Smith. I don’t know if he can break any more records but he is always trying to improve and get better.
“If your captain is doing that, then it makes you want to improve, too.
“I know I have a lot of improving to do and that is all about leading the team around better.”
Asked how he can improve, he says: “Probably just a bit more consistency on the training paddock. It doesn’t show as much on the field where I play a lot better, but I can be more consistent at training with my passes and execution.
“You have to do it at training to make sure you do it in a game. With Smithy, what you see on the training paddock is what you see in games. That is something I need to be better with and something I need to focus on.”
Why one of NRL’s great empires is in danger of falling apart
Melbourne is a club under siege with Queensland Origin sensation Cameron Munster the next poaching target as the Storm fight to keep its golden dynasty from a full-blown collapse.
The Storm has been the NRL’s best team for the past decade but it is now confronting the type of potential exodus that decimated Australian cricket in the 1980s.
Australia’s national sporting team was basking in a golden age when the baggy green Big Three — Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh and Greg Chappell — retired after a Test against Pakistan in 1984.
In the blink of an eye 253 Tests of experience was lost, plunging Australian cricket into the doldrums before Allan Border led a revival with the 1987 World Cup triumph.
Now, in a rugby league sense, Melbourne, and indeed the NRL, have a looming problem — how to save the Storm from disintegration.
Despite its outstanding success, the Storm hasn’t got the true recognition it deserves in Melbourne. It has 25,000 members and data shows Storm has the second largest fan base, behind only the Broncos, but they forever live in the gargantuan shadow cast by the AFL.
So can you imagine the challenges the Storm will confront if champion skipper Cameron Smith retires this season, as expected, and super coach Craig Bellamy walks out 12 months later?
If Melbourne’s welfare is not a huge concern for the NRL, it should be. As part of their vision for a national footprint, the NRL needs the Storm to uphold the standards of excellence Bellamy has driven for 17 years.
But Brisbane’s hungry pursuit of Bellamy rings alarm bells. If Melbourne’s champion coach chases a fresh chapter at the Broncos in 2022, it will not only rip the cultural heart out of the Storm, but potentially precipitate a wider-scale player exodus.
Which brings us to Munster, and why the Storm’s future could hinge on his retention.
The strength Melbourne has cultivated as a rugby-league outpost can also represent its weakness.
By luring most of its talent from rugby-league strongholds in Queensland and NSW, the Storm, at some point, must accept club icons, such as Bellamy and Smith, could yearn for a return to family roots.
Munster has been groomed as the transitional poster boy for Melbourne. Just turned 26, Munster is in the sweet spot of his career.
When he signed a four-year, $3.6 million extension last year until the end of 2023, it was viewed as the deal that would steer Munster towards the captaincy and keep Melbourne stable in the post-Smith era.
But Melbourne is not Melbourne without Bellamy. His Storm disciples, such as Munster, will sense a seminal shift if Bellamy joins the Broncos, who would suddenly become a magnet for Melbourne, and other NRL, players.
Born in Rockhampton, the lure of returning to Queensland is always real for Munster.
As recently as a fortnight ago, his management were contacted by prospective NRL team the Bombers, who want Munster to be their No.1 signing to spearhead the second Brisbane team ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys is keen to create.
“A guy like Cameron Munster would be the perfect poster boy,” Bombers director Nick Livermore said.
“I don‘t know too many Queensland kids who wouldn’t want to be part of a start-up second Brisbane team.”
If Broncos development chiefs are doing their job, they should be going hard for Munster, knowing Bellamy‘s possible arrival at Red Hill in 2022 would only aid their chances of poaching the Maroons ace.
At the NRL’s season launch in Sydney in March, I sat down with Munster for an interview. I asked him if he would consider returning to Queensland to head-up a second Brisbane franchise.
“It’s something I wouldn’t rule out,” he said. “The Storm are a great club and they have done a lot for me, so there’s that appeal of being a one-club man.
“But being a Queensland boy, that (going home) is always an option. It’s a business at the end of the day so I will do what’s best for me and my family.”
For almost two decades, the Storm has felt secure in Fortress Melbourne, knowing it had the best in Bellamy, building the dynasty brick by brick.
But without Bellamy, and loyal soldiers like Munster, the super Storm empire could come crashing down.
Originally published as NRL Finals: Maroons star Cameron Munster is ready to captain Melbourne in post-Cam Smith era