Queensland Maroons captain Cameron Munster loses father days out from State of Origin III
The Queensland captain, in a brave decision to honour his dad, will still lead the Maroons on Wednesday night after taking time away to grieve with his family before preparing to lead the side in what will be an emotion-charged occasion.
Maroons coach Billy Slater made a statement to media on Sunday morning.
"Unfortunately we woke to the sad news of the passing of Cameron Munster's father Steven Munster overnight. Cam will exit camp to be with his family before rejoining his team for the game on Wednesday," Slater said.
"On behalf of myself, our footy team and the state of Queensland we send our thoughts, our love and condolences to Steven Munster's family and friends, in particular his wife Debbie, his daughter Danielle and of course his son Cameron."
Days before the passing of his father, Munster spoke of his desire to lead the Maroons to what would be a historic victory.
No Maroons side in 45 years has lost the first game and won the next two away from home. The 26-24 win in Perth in game two is the first box ticked.
Munster won his first decider on debut in 2017 and was superb. He backed that up in 2020 in a 20-14 win in Brisbane, after which he was named the Wally Lewis Medal winner as player of the series, despite missing most of game two after being concussed in the opening minutes.
Both of those games were in Brisbane. He has played just one previous decider in Sydney, in 2019 when a last-minute James Tedesco try won it 26-20 for NSW.
Munster, 30, was man of the match in his first game as skipper in game two and is determined to back that up in his 21st Origin match.
"There's a lot riding on it and there's a lot of history that needs to be broken, but things tend to get broken," Munster said.
"I'm probably going to need to stand up again for game three and I'll make sure I do.
"I have played in a decider in Sydney when we just got beaten by them in the last two minutes. We had come back in a miraculous way. I think we were down 14 points at one stage, but then Tedesco scored and broke our hearts.
"I know they're a good quality outfit and we're a good quality outfit too. We keep speaking about bringing our best game and we brought it for the first 40 minutes [in Perth] but it's going to take a whole 80-minute performance in Sydney."
The Maroons have retained the Origin shield in a Sydney decider on four occasions, with wins in 1998, 2008 and 2013, along with a draw in 2002 when Dane Carlaw scored in the final minute.
Munster indicated the Maroons would relish being the underdogs in Sydney.
"In Perth, there was a lot of people that wrote us off, so there'll be a lot of people writing us off for game three," he said recently.
"We can only control what we control in the week and get our preparation right.
"We've got to go down there and try and play our hearts out and give it everything."
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