NRL 2022: Inside Royce Hunt’s rise from NRL scrapheap to Cronulla Sharks star

Unable to crack first grade at 19, Royce Hunt was on the verge of joining the NRL scrapheap. Until a call from Pete Mulholland and a meeting with Mounties changed everything.

Ronaldo Mulitalo try celebration. Picture: NRL Images

With the likes of James Graham, Aiden Tolman, Sam Kasiano and David Klemmer in front of him at Canterbury, Royce Hunt wanted to quit.

In 2015 and aged 19, the ex-Bulldogs forward was content with never playing footy again.

“I didn’t want to play anymore. I was off the game,’’ Hunt said.

On Saturday, Hunt will start in the front-row for the third-placed Sharks against Manly at Four Pines Park, ahead of former Test prop Andrew Fifita and Tolman.

Hunt’s journey from being on the verge of rugby league’s scrapheap to a front-row spot in a Sharks pack littered with Test and Origin players and rising stars is a beauty.

The 26-year-old, who first began playing junior rugby league in Western Australia, was saved from being washed at 19 by iconic NRL figure and long considered the game’s best talent scout, the late Peter Mulholland.

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Unable to crack the Bulldogs side in 2015, Royce Hunt considered giving the game away. Picture: David Swift.

“I got to the end of that final season in 2015 with the Dogs and I was done,” Hunt said.

“I was training alot and I was run down. Fatigued by it all and I wasn’t really getting a run.

“Pete Mulholland, a great bloke, he was the one that brought me over from WA to the Bulldogs.

“He caught wind of me saying I didn’t want to play anymore and he pretty much told me to go to a meeting at Mounties (NSW Cup team), which was the Raiders feeder club at the time.

“I went to the meeting ready to say no thanks.”

Asked why he still met with Mounties, when clearly his passion for the game had disappeared, Hunt replied: “Because it was Pete Mulholland.

“I owed him something for bringing me over from WA.

“I respected him a lot.

“I signed with Mounties for match payments of $750 a game.”

In the same year current Sharks captain Wade Graham was winning the premiership in 2016, Hunt was finding his love for rugby league again with Mounties.

Royce Hunt took a deal to play for Mounties and rediscovered his love for rugby league. Picture: NRL Photos

“I played cup the whole year and I loved every minute of it,” Hunt said.

Working from midnight until 8am for Toll, an air-freight package service company, Hunt would finish his shift-work, sleep through the morning and then train with Mounties in the evening.

The flame within Hunt began to flicker again.

“Mounties is such a good club. I owe a lot to that club,” Hunt said.

“The coaching staff made me fall in love with the game again.”

Then came a call from Raiders coach Ricky Stuart.

“I started playing some good footy, lost a bit of weight and ended up getting a call from Ricky,” Hunt said.

“He asked if I was interested in coming to Canberra for a month?

“One month turned into two, two turned into three and I ended up debuting (in round four, 2017) and staying another two years after that.

“I loved it there, even though I only had one game.”

Unable to crack the Raiders elite forward pack, Hunt received a call from the Sharks ahead of the 2020 season.

After one game for the Raiders, Hunt made the move to Cronulla and has finally found himself a regular starter. Picture: David Swift.

“Cronulla came knocking and I knew it was my last shot,” Hunt said.

“If nothing happened here, my plan was that I would just go back to work.

“I ended up playing 14-games in 2020, then I ruptured my patella in the final game of 2021, sidelining me for almost a year.”

Among a powerful pack with big names and experience, Hunt began this season by being challenged by Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon to fight his way from the interchange bench and into the starting front-row.

With the reward of a new contract for 2023, Hunt, who is rated the strongest man in the NRL with a bench press record of 200kg, has answered his coach’s call.

“We‘ve got Dale (Finucane), Cam (McInnes), Bop (Fifita), Tols (Tolman), all old heads always talking to me,’’ Hunt, who scored his first try in two seasons last weekend, said.

“I’m still learning every day I come to training. I’m just trying to put my best foot forward every week and get us off to a good start every game.

“We’re building something special here as a club and I’m happy to be a part of it.’’

CRONULLA’S FAB FIVE MAKE PAY CUT PACT

—Fatima Kdouh

Cronulla star Ronaldo Mulitalo says pay cuts have ‘got to happen’ if the club has any chance of keeping their starting back five together beyond 2023.

The Sharks are facing a feeding frenzy with Will Kennedy, Sione Katoa, Jesse Ramien, Sifa Talakai and Mulitalo set to hit the open market from November 1.

But Mulitalo revealed the five players have had numerous discussions about the club’s salary cap squeeze and made a pact to take a pay cut in a bid to remain together at the Shire.

“For all us, we all know we’re probably going to have to take a pay cut at some point, that’s just got to happen,” Mulitalo said.

“Sifa has played Origin, Sione is an international, Jesse is on the cusp of Origin and is having an outstanding season.

“It’s tough for the club, we just have to try and find some way of fitting us all in. I‘m pretty confident something will happen.”

“We’ve all had conversations about being together. We have won championships together through the juniors and through reserve grade, so we want to stick together.”

So serious are the backline quintet of not being torn apart by a salary cap squeeze, Mulitalo revealed their respective managers will meet to hash out a plan to fulfil the wishes of their clients.

Ronaldo Mulitalo says he is ready to take a pay cut to keep the Sharks back five together. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

“Our managers are all trying to get together, everyone wants a bit of the cake and it’s about how much we dish out to everyone,” Mulitalo said.

All five players are in fine form and have been crucial to Cronulla’s rise on the NRL ladder this season.

Talakai is now a NSW Blues player, while Jesse Ramien has factored in Origin selection discussions and Mulitalo and Katoa are international representatives. Kennedy is in career-best form at fullback.

It appears inevitable the players will field enticing offers from rival outfits, if any are allowed to hit the open market in just over two months time.

Any delay in negotiations could mean the club won’t be able to lock in the stars until after the Rugby League World Cup with all, except Kennedy, likely to feature in the tournament.

The Sharks are in extension talks with Mulitalo and the winger is keen to make a deal before the finals series.

“I have had talks, we all have. I think the club is communicating with us about it all so we’ve had those little conversations,” Mulitalo said.

“But we have the season to focus on. If I can’t get it done before November 1, which is not ideal, I’m sure it will be done by the end of the year.”

With the Sharks in reach of a top two finish there are fears contract talks could become a distraction heading into the finals.

Siosifa Talakai is set to hit the open market from November 1.

But Mulitalo insisted the focus remained solely on winning Cronulla’s second premiership with players no longer content riding the success of the club’s historic title in 2016.

“I think for us, we were riding on that for so many years, their success. Obviously we want to honour them but we have to build our own legacy and build our own history in this jersey,” he said.

“We spoke about really making a dent, rather than just being a part of it. The last time in 2020 we just made up the numbers … but now we have stability at the top and Craig Fitzgibbon.

“His standards are so high. Then you have guys like Dale Finucane and Cameron McInnes that have set the bar, they have come in and shown us what winning looks like and what it takes to win.”

Fitzgibbon’s ‘standards have done more than turn the Sharks into a competitive outfit but have also ‘tightened the screws’ on off-field expectations.

Mulitalo believes that has been the key to Cronulla’s turnaround in 2022.

“Touch wood, we haven’t had anything off the field, if you look at our history we maybe haven’t been the best,” Mulitalo said.

“He’s tightened the screws around off the field stuff. He talks about being a better man, that’s what comes before everything.

“It shows we are serious about our footy and how we hold ourselves in public and we stand tall anywhere we go.”

SHARKS’ INCREDIBLE 20-YEAR PLAN FOR FITZGIBBON

- Dean Ritchie

And you thought Cameron Ciraldo’s new five-year deal at Canterbury showed serious commitment.

Well, check this out.

In a startling endorsement, Sharks chairman Steve Mace has predicted Craig Fitzgibbon will be Cronulla’s head coach for the next “20 years.”

It is clear proof Fitzgibbon will be locked down by the Sharks for years – maybe even decades.

Fitzgibbon has been a revelation in his first season as head coach, guiding his Sharks to equal second place on the NRL table with 15 wins from 21 games.

He would a favourite to collect this year’s Dally M coach of the year award.

Craig Fitzgibbon could stay at the Sharks for decades Picture: NRL Photos

While formal contract extension talks are yet to begin, Mace has no doubt Cronulla want Fitzgibbon – in the first season of a three-year deal – to stay on an extended contract.

“The reality is Craig will be here for 20 years,” Mace said. “We will do it, we will extend, we will keep going.

“The guy will be here for 10, 20 years if he chooses. It’s a muck-around over-a-beer conversation all the time – when are we signing that 20-year deal?

“The reality is we’re both not going anywhere so there’s no rush and he’s in no rush. The conversation is always fluid and we will do it (a new contract) when it’s convenient. We will get through the footy this year and chat then.

“Look, in business I like to lock things down but there are other times when you know you’ve got a genuine relationship and an understanding with someone and you don’t need to stress.

“This is to take nothing away from Nicho (Hynes), Dale (Finucane) and Cam (McInnes) but I know who the buy of the year is.

Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon is highly-regarded. Picture: Mark Kolbe / Getty Images

“You just know the ilk of someone, you know the way they think, how they’re wired, their ethics, what dynamics and levers they need to pull to be successful. He’s got it from end-to-end.

“His general skill set, methodical mind, his management of people – you could pick him up and put him into any business. He’s just got it. And he’s a bloody good bloke.”

Cronulla play Manly this Saturday afternoon at 4 Pines Park, Brookvale.

Victory further enhances Cronulla’s chances of an all-important top four finish with three rounds remaining.

“I’d love to see him stay here as a long-term coach and I’d love him here for as long as I am – the next three, four years,” said Cronulla’s representative forward Dale Finucane.

“I know that he’d love to stay and the club would love to have him. As soon as he (Fitzgibbon) walked in the door he made an immediate impact; the standards that he’s set for all the players and the culture that he has brought into the club.

“He has got everyone to buy into it and it’s no secret that that’s why the club has been so successful to date.

“I can’t speak highly enough of him. He obviously did a fair apprenticeship at the Roosters for a decade and learnt under the best and he has implemented that into his own style of coaching.

“He said before he came here that this was the club he wanted to come to and was the best fit for him personally. I think that’s true.”

Originally published as NRL 2022: Inside Royce Hunt’s rise from NRL scrapheap to Cronulla Sharks star