Munster’s extraordinary address floors Slater: ‘I never tell him that’

Cameron Munster sat down next to Billy Slater and launched into an extraordinary address that left his old Storm teammate taken aback.

Maroons skipper Cameron Munster has gone in to bat for Billy Slater, declaring criticism and comments levelled against the Queensland coach “hurt me personally”.

In the lead up to the Maroons’ Game II victory, Slater delivered an emotional response to being labelled a “grub” by former NRL and Origin star Aaron Woods.

In Slater’s comments, he referred to former Queensland mentor Paul Green, who tragically took his own life in 2022.

Slater later issued an apology to his family and loved ones on Wednesday, explaining he felt “terrible about what I said”.

That situation compounded pressure on the Queensland coach, who was hit with a wave of criticism following his side’s resounding series-opening loss at Suncorp Stadium.

For Munster, the Maroons’ latest win was simply a response to those who doubted Slater and Queensland.

“When you’ve got jabs or blokes in the media having a go at your coach, at the end of the day he is our coach and he has done everything he can and ticked the boxes for us,” he said.

“We didn’t perform for him in Game I and he got a lot of slack for it and a lot of stuff in the media and he didn’t deserve it.

“I played with Bill, he is a champion player and a champion coach and I have had a great relationship with him and still do. We are really close mates.

“When you have someone jabbing him like that, it really hurts. It hurts me personally and I never tell him that. I will tell him now, I love him.

“I just want to do the best thing for him and the best thing for Queensland. He’s not doing this for him, he’s doing this for Queensland and he loves Queensland.

“That’s the reason why he’s so passionate and when you have someone like that at the top, you want to play for him. At the end of the day... he’s the reason I want to play.”

Munster was then asked if he got the playing group together to address Slater’s comments in the lead-up to the clash.

“No, I didn’t have to. Rightly so, the boys would have seen it on their phones, media, whatever it was,” Munster said.

“At the end of the day when someone is having a job at someone from your own backyard you stand up and want to get up and fight.

“We needed to do that tonight, we were backs against the wall, no one gave us a chance.

“When you have guys nitpicking and jabbing at your coach, it’s not him, it’s the players who go out there. He’s given us a great game plan and we didn’t execute in Game I.

“We did it tonight in the first half... but just so proud of us as a group that we had to play for him.”

Slater was clearly taken aback by Munster’s comments, taking his chance to have a sneaky jab at his newly appointed skipper.

“That’s the nicest thing he has ever said to me,” Slater said.

“No, I don’t know. I know the game, I’m in the game, I understand it. Sometimes things get pushed to the boundary but it hasn’t influenced how I look at myself.

“And who I am as a person, I am very comfortable with who I am. I know who I am, I know who these guys are and there’s been a real togetherness about the group.

“That was what I was talking about with the position switches, starting, bench, it doesn’t matter. Everyone is a player of this footy team.

“That’s what Queenslanders do, they do it together, I’m not talking disrespectful to any other states. But when something happens they all pull together and look after each other.

“Whether it’s a flood, or a cyclone, a bushfire, they all pull together and help each other out.”

Munster was later quizzed on the pressure on his Queensland side leading into Game II, a clash that could have seen NSW secure a series victory.

“We probably put it on ourselves, we didn’t play great footy in the first game and as media journos you have got to create stories,”

“We improved tonight but we have so much more improvement to do because we can’t afford to dish up that stuff we did in the second half

“If it’s a dry track it could have been a different story... we just can’t keep blowing leads like that.”

Meanwhile, one of Slater’s biggest selection decisions leading into the Perth clash was his decision to recall Kurt Capewell in the back row.

The Warriors veteran was one of Queensland’s best, making a mountain of crucial tackles and Slater spoke highly of the experienced forward.

“There’s a reason why the Warriors are doing well and it’s because they have players like Kurt Capewell in their team,” Slater said.

“There was a bit of talk around the number of missed tackles but I didn’t actually know that. It probably goes to show that I don’t look at numbers, I look at their actions and he has done an amazing job.

“It might have surprised a few but it wasn’t that out of the blue for me.”

Originally published as Munster’s extraordinary address floors Slater: ‘I never tell him that’