Cameron Munster’s inspiring comeback from rehab to captaining Queensland

New Maroons skipper Cameron Munster opens up about his reformation from wild-child larrikin to Queensland leader – and the stint in a Brisbane rehab clinic that saved his life.

New Queensland State of Origin captain Cameron Munster has revealed he feared being sacked over the infamous white-powder scandal that cost the Storm star almost $500,000.

As he prepares for his captaincy debut in Origin II in Perth, Munster opened up about his reformation from wild-child larrikin to Queensland leader – and the stint in a Brisbane rehab clinic that saved his life.

This is the remarkable resurrection story of a generational footballing talent who once believed he was too broken to ever captain one of Australian sport’s most famous teams.

So broken he battled not only the destructive demons of gambling and alcoholism, but waged a dark personal struggle with anxiety.

Munster walked a treacherous fine line juggling the pressures of NRL stardom, and its associated fame and money, with seeking personal validation from others that he was truly as good as others believed him to be.

On Wednesday night, Munster will run onto Perth’s Optus Stadium as Queensland’s 16th captain, succeeding dumped halfback Daly Cherry-Evans. The redemption story is complete. Not even Munster can yet believe this Maroon fairytale.

“It does blow me away,” the 30-year-old said ahead of Game Two.

“If you told me five years ago I would be captain of Queensland, I’d say you were crazy.

“My story is proof you can definitely turn things around.”

Queensland State of Origin captain Cameron Munster. Picture: QRL

ROCK BOTTOM

Hit the rewind button four years.

The world is gripped by the Covid crisis and Munster’s life is caving in.

It’s September 27, 2021 and this masthead breaks the biggest story of the NRL season: three Melbourne players are caught on a leaked video partying with what appears to be a white substance during the finals series. Munster is one of them.

The vision shows him skylarking shirtless on a hotel-room table.

An hour after the story breaks, he arrives at rugby league’s night of nights with a sheepish look on his face.

Munster knows the entire room is whispering about him.

A Storm and NRL probe comes down hard on Munster.

He is fined $30,000 and banned for one game, while a suspended $100,000 sanction hangs over his head if he breaches a 12-month ban on drinking alcohol.

Brandon Smith (L) and Cameron Munster (centre) were caught up in a 'white powder' scandal in 2021.

In that moment, Munster believed he was a dead-man walking at Melbourne.

“I was down in the dumps that they were going to sack me,” Munster tells this masthead.

“You always have things in your head and doubts as to whether the club would want me anymore. I had a loose mentality.

“There is a time and place for everything and the truth is I got myself into a downward spiral.

“I started hanging around the wrong people.

“Once I got into that space, I needed help to get out of it.”

REHAB RESCUE

The Banyans Healthcare facility is in the inner-city Brisbane suburb of Bowen Hills, just 6km from Suncorp Stadium, the place where Munster announced himself as a superstar with his stunning Origin debut for the Maroons in 2017.

It’s the same rehab facility his Maroons teammate, 18th man Ezra Mam, attended last October following his drug-driving scandal at the Broncos.

But well before Mam’s stint, Munster was forced to face the man in the mirror. His four-week stint in rehab cost around $20,000 a week.

The Storm weren’t coming to the party with a soft fiscal landing. He paid every cent himself.

With legal bills, fines and lost sponsorships, the whole ordeal cost Munster an estimated half-a-million dollars.

“At the end of the day, the Storm wanted to do the best thing for me and that meant going to where I went,” he said.

Cameron Munster opened up to Phil Rothfield in 2021.

“I agreed to do it.

“I had to change my life.

“In rehab, I learnt who my close friends were.

“You get to the professional stage of rugby league with the limelight and it might not be rock star status, but I started to think I was a rock star.

“I needed to see who my real friends were.

“To be honest, I learnt there wasn’t a whole heap there for me. I have a small circle now and it’s one of those periods where I had to grow up and I believe I have.

“Looking back, I’m glad I did it. It’s been for the better.”

THE FREE FALL

Munster’s free fall began just months after his sizzling Origin debut for Queensland.

He was sent home from Australia’s World Cup campaign following a boozy bust-up with teammate Ben Hunt.

Munster returned to Melbourne to be read the riot act by Storm coach Craig Bellamy.

Twelve months later, Munster had two brain explosions in the 2018 grand final, sin-binned twice as the Storm crashed to the Roosters at the big dance. The pressure was building. Munster recalled how days after the grand-final loss, he copped abuse and death threats and was scared to leave his Melbourne home.

“He had the pressures of being Cameron Munster, he had people trying to hang off him,” says his former manager Shaun Pyne, who signed a 17-year-old Munster to his first NRL contract at the Storm.

Munster takes a selfie with fans at the Origin fan day. Picture: Lachie Millard

“Cam battled with anxiety and the pressures of NRL. Under the bravado, he is really a softly spoken guy and a good person.

“While Cam has a lot of swagger, underneath the swagger is a guy who has a good heart and is very loyal to people, but Cam likes to be liked.

“He was like any young kid coming into the NRL.

“He got fame and lots of money and it’s not easy to handle.”

For a long time, the Storm kept Munster’s battles in-house and tried to ease the pressure valve. He worked extensively with highly-regarded club psychologist Jacqui Louder, who has helped a number of AFL and NRL stars, including Broncos fullback Reece Walsh.

“How the Storm handled Cameron and turned his life around is a credit to that club,” Pyne says.

“Going to rehab was a light bulb moment.

Munster and coach Billy Slater. Picture: Lachie Millard

“The pressures of rugby league, the pressures of life and professional sport had got to him.

“Cam had that tough grand final against the Roosters where they lost and he got sent to the sin bin twice. All that stuff affected him. He got to a stage where his plate was too full.

“He needed a reality check and he made a huge mistake that weekend with Chris Lewis and Brandon Smith (in the white-powder scandal).

“I’m so proud of him for the way he has fought back to captain Queensland.”

Pyne says Munster is a great story for any aspiring athlete.

“He didn’t make rep sides as a schoolkid. He was a country kid from Rocky who worked at Rebel sport and went to the Storm on bugger all money,” he said.

“He worked on reception at the Storm answering phones. That’s the type of person he is. Cameron finds time for everyone.

“He’s had his setbacks like a lot of NRL players but he has come out the other side.”

THE SAVIOURS

Just months after checking out of rehab, Munster checked into a new life. Eight weeks after leaving the Banyans, Munster welcomed his first child, son Jaxon, with wife Bianca.

The couple now have three children following the arrival of a second son, Jagger, and their first daughter, Blake Maria.

During his high-octane, larrikin years, Munster could spend more than $50,000 at the races and be in a drunken stupor all weekend. Not any more.

“I’m not going to say I’m off the piss forever, but I’m not out of control now,” he said.

“I play my best footy when I’m off the piss and I haven’t had a beer for a while actually.

“It’s now one of those things where it’s time and place.

“Hangovers aren’t fun when you have kids at home.

“All they want is to spend time with their dad and mum and I want to be that dad spending time with them and giving them the best life they can have.

“The last thing you want to do is be sleeping for 10 hours the next day and not being present as a dad.

“I’ve had my years of fun and now I’m devoted to my family. I want to lead them in the right direction as young growing men and a young daughter.

“My wife Bianca and kids have been an integral part of my journey and I’m really grateful that they walked into my life.”

FOLLOW THE LEADER

Munster celebrates another special milestone on Wednesday night.

He will receive the prestigious Dick ‘Tosser’ Turner Medal for reaching his 20th Origin game for Queensland, joining an elite club that includes Cameron Smith, Allan Langer, Darren Lockyer, Wally Lewis and Mal Meninga.

At the Storm, the club has a saying: ‘When you drink from the well, remember who dug it’.

It’s a mantra that could easily apply to the Queensland team, who are crying out for Munster’s brilliance and leadership to not only save the series in Origin II, but spearhead a new Maroons era.

“It’s a bit of a turning circle and hopefully I can go out there and lead like the boys that have led before me,” he said.

“I’ve made a fair few mistakes but I’ve learned a lot around the journey as well.

“If someone ever gets that opportunity to be in similar shoes like myself hopefully I can lead them in the right direction.

“It’s such a great opportunity to be captain, being the 16th one. When you look at the greats of the game who have captained Queensland, it’s pretty special.

“When Billy told me I had a little tear in my eye.”

Munster still has goosebumps each time he thinks about it.

“I’m not going to change the person I am, it’s the reason why I am who I am. Billy just told me to lead by my actions and that’s what I want to do.

“I can’t wait to lead Queensland out.”

THE BOSS’S BACKING

Last Monday night, Queensland coach Slater called Munster to his room at their Camp Maroon base on the Sunshine Coast. It was around 9.30pm.

Munster feared he was going to be dropped, but Slater told him he was the new captain of the Maroons.

The appointment wouldn’t have happened without the imprimatur of the Queensland Rugby League board and its chief executive Ben Ikin, who have the power to veto a coach’s decision.

Ikin had no hesitation backing Munster, despite a similar party-boy reputation costing cricket legend Shane Warne any hope of captaining Australia.

“Cameron is real, he is authentic, he cares and he gives his all ... all the qualities you need to be a great leader,” Ikin said.

“They say rugby league doesn’t happen in straight lines, it’s a whole bunch of squiggles and that is true for Cam’s trajectory in this game.

“I just have great admiration for someone who clearly has a whole lot of natural ability and has worked hard.

Maroons legend Wally Lewis and Munster in 2023. Picture: NRL Photos

“He would be the first to admit he hasn’t got it right all the time off the field, who at some point during his career has acknowledged that and decided he wants to be better.”

Ikin said Munster put things in place and committed to them.

“He has now landed himself in the top job as the captain of the Maroons,” he said.

“As a player, he gives his all every time he takes the field and it’s just good to see that things have come together for him off the field.

“I couldn’t think of a better person at the moment in that squad to be leading the Maroons.”

Ikin says anyone who rubs shoulders with Munster can’t help but warm to him.

“I didn’t know him well, but the last few years I have started to spend some time with him,” Ikin said.

“He is cheeky, absolutely, but he is very intelligent. He has a high footy IQ and he has this good energy when you are in his company.

“Cam lightens the mood, not too dissimilar to ‘Alf’ (Langer), in what can be a really intense environment with a lot of pressure and scrutiny.

“He has the capacity to see the fun in what they are involved in. In his career, he has seen everything that can go right and wrong in a footballer’s life on and off the field. He is well equipped to lead others through those challenges.

“Anyone can be at their best when conditions are ideal. Life is about what you have under the bonnet when the waters get choppy or the blowtorch gets applied or things don’t go your way.

“Cam would be the first to say things haven’t gone his way, much of it through his own undoing.

“But he has made a decision that he will be better and he has come out the other side as a better person as captain of the Queensland Origin team.

“What a wonderful story.”

Originally published as Cameron Munster’s inspiring comeback from rehab to captaining Queensland