‘Never felt like this': Billy, Munster shares details of shattering Maroons camp moment
FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every game of every round in the 2025 NRL Telstra Premiership, LIVE with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer.
Slater said Munster's effort to lead the Maroons onto Accor Stadium and help deliver a series win, just three days after the passing of his father Steven, was one of the most 'courageous and brave' things he's seen.
The Maroons coach said that Munster immediately committed to playing soon after receiving the devastating phone call.
'I don't like ranking things but I've never felt like this,' Slater said.
'The bloke to my left (Munster), that's as courageous and brave as I've ever seen.
'I lost my dad in January, I know what it's like, I know what it feels like. Our dads are our heroes.
'I don't know how he did it, but within 10 minutes of sitting with him in his room on Sunday morning he looked at me and said 'Bill, I'm playing'. I know his dad would have wanted him to and boy that is one proud dad up there tonight'.'
Munster and Slater were captured in an emotional embrace on the field following Queensland's 24-12 win, with Maroons teammates also showing their support in touching scenes.
As he didn't want to disrupt the team's preparation, Munster admitted he considered staying in camp, but his coach urged him otherwise.
'I rang Bill straight away. When I told him he dropped everything and came to my room and Bill spoke about how he lost his old man in January.
'I was in camp the whole week. I knew the preparation. It would have been a tough job for Bill to put someone in and understand the way we wanted to play.
'It was an easy decision to me. Queensland is everything to me... It was an easy decision for me. I never would have turned this decision down.
'I had a moment there with Bill and had a moment with him on Sunday. He knows what I'm going through.
'He gave me the opportunity to go home first. Family's first. I'll be forever grateful for that.
'I was leaning towards not (going home) but Bill told me I needed to go home and I'm so grateful that he did.
'It's not ideal preparation wise but the way the team got up for me, I'll be sitting down when I'm 80 years of age remembering 2025.'
Munster also credited his teammates, singling out a couple of unsung heroes.
'I have so much trust in this team and so much love,' he said.
'You look at guys like Reuben Cotter and Kurt Capewell. So many people were bagging our back rowers in the media saying they're not back rowers and they miss tackles.
'A couple of times Reuben put his body on the line, same with Kurt.
'We just grow an extra leg when we where this jersey.
'They talk about the Neville Nobodies in 1995, but no one in the journo world gave us a chance. It'd be interesting to say what you're going to do tomorrow.'
For Slater, it's his third series win in four years at the helm.
After a hiccup last year and a series opening loss, Slater and the Maroons were feeling the pressure.
The way the Maroons were able to scrap and claw back to win this series though is nothing short of impressive.
Given everything that went on in the lead up and having their backs against the walls, Slater called the Game III win an 'inspiring performance'.
'I've been proud of this group a number of times over the past four years but I don't know if I've been anymore proud than tonight,' the Queensland coach said.
'There's been a lot of hurdles to overcome. It's an incredible feeling and I'm sure 5.5 million people are feeling the same way.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
10 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Billy Brownless goes viral with X-rated ‘skinny dipping' photo
Billy Brownless has left his family horrified after sharing a photo of himself skinny dipping on social media. The Geelong Cats icon is living his best life and looking very loved up with his partner Crystle Fleur, with the couple enjoying a mid-year getaway last week to Western Australia. FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1. Brownless shared some happy snaps of the holiday around WA, and the footy larrikin saved some of his best, or worst work for a swimming pool at Broome. 'Welcome to Bill's fitness regime,' he said in a tongue-in-cheek clip uploaded to social media. 'Today I'm going to swim 50 laps of this pool. Righto, here we go.' Cue the camera panning to show a pool that could not have been more than three metres long, as Brownless pushed off for a 'lap'. He wrote on Instagram: 'While in Broome I thought I would get back into the pool and cut some laps!!!' In a separate post, Brownless shared a photo of him relaxing in the pool with his obvious lack of swimwear leaving little to the imagination — thankfully he was facing away from the camera. 'Some call it 'Skinny Dipping' I like to call it 'Fat Dipping' #fatstraveldiary,' he wrote. Safe to say the X-rated post was a bit of a surprise to Brownless' friends and family. Former AFL star Dale Thomas joked: 'Reverse angle is a Nirvana album cover.' Bec Judd commented: 'Ahahaha. Nice seeing you yesterday. Glad you had some clothes on.' Brownless' horrified daughter Ruby commented: 'Wow it gets worse', after responding to his swimming pool post with 'Honestly no words'. His partner Crystal captioned one of her posts: 'Relaxing by the pool @cablebeachclub the most perfect place to relax until I looked in the pool @billybrownless.' Brownless, known as the king of Geelong during his playing days, told the Herald Sun his partner had uploaded the viral skinny dip photo to his Instagram account without his knowledge. 'She thought it was fun. I was just paddling around in the pool, splashing around,' he said. 'She said I've got a shot here for you. Darl, we'll get rid of those shorts and we'll just have a bit of fun with it. And she thought it would be funny to go nude. She knows how to post off my account. 120,000 views, the punters loved it.' The 58-year-old said his kids let him know they were less than impressed. 'They're the ones who aren't so happy,'' Brownless said. 'Ruby is the most outspoken, she rang me. She said 'dad, you're a dickhead'.' Earlier this month, Brownless and Fleur celebrated their one-year anniversary, with Fleur posting: 'Happy 1st anniversary to this amazing man!' Brownless and Fleur went public with their relationship in October last year at Geelong's best and fairest night. The Cats Hall of Famer was seen arm in arm with the 52-year-old mum of three with the two being sighted at a plethora of events since. The pair had reportedly been going strong for two months before their first public outing. The happy couple were spotted after the AFL Grand Final speaking with his ex-wife Nicky Brownless and former best mate and Melbourne great Garry Lyon. Brownless and Nicky were together for 18 years before splitting in 2014. In 2016 Lyon's friendship with Brownless fell apart after he went public with Nicky. A month after their relationship made headlines, Billy revealed how the relationship had impacted his family, saying 'a good mate wouldn't do that'. 'I couldn't believe it. I found out three or four months ago. I asked Garry and Nicky earlier on what is going on and they said they were just good friends,' he said on the Footy Show at the time. 'That's what hurts the most.' The former best mates have since reunited with the duo spending several Christmases together as an extended family. Lyon surprised Nicky in December, 2023 when he proposed and she said yes. Nicky clearly wasn't expecting the move, announcing the news of the engagement on her Instagram account, posting a black and white photo of the pair embracing with the caption 'the best surprise'. The duo, who have been together for eight years, took off to New York shortly after the proposal.
News.com.au
26 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Umpires will be given the job of speeding the game up amid changes new AFL football boss Greg Swann wants to see
New AFL football boss Greg Swann has put loping ruckman on the clock, booking meetings with umpires on his first day in the hot seat on Monday in a bid to speed up the game as he goes through '43 pages of stuff' people want him to fix. Swann also said fans 'deserve to understand' decisions made by umpires and the match review panel, with a plan for more transparency part of the bulk changes coming for the former Brisbane Lions chief executive. Swann started his new job on Monday and revealed the game's speed was among key issues he'd look to address, with potential changes coming as soon as he can orchestrate them. 'I've only just started, obviously, and I've got some meetings this afternoon with the umpires … but it's just around the set-ups and the waiting for rucks to get to contest,' Swann said. 'Even at boundary throw-ins, waiting for them to get there. There's a chance to actually speed that up a bit. There's good vision and video of rucks taking 20 seconds to come from one end of the ground to the other while the other one stands around and waits. 'To me, that's something that hopefully we can have a look at and maybe address even before the season finishes.' Swann said it was 'too early' to talk about whether the four-umpire system was working, but the bounce to start quarters and after goals could also be on the way out should the majority view of clubs come to fruition. It won't happen in 2025 but could come into play in 2026, with umpires instead just throwing the ball up. 'We'll do some work on it,' Swann said. 'In the next little bit, I'll get around to all the clubs and just get their views. I've had some clubs already ring and give me their views and I'd say the majority are in favour of throwing the ball up, but we've got to do a little bit of work around that. 'Obviously, that's not going to happen until next year, but we'll have a look at that as well.' Swann said transparency around decisions made by match review officer Michael Christian, in the spotlight this week after Melbourne defender Steven May was sent straight to the tribunal, was something that could be addressed to alleviate supporter angst. 'We're not going to explain everything away because otherwise you'd be here all day,' Swann said. 'But there's some things that are a bit contentious that I think people deserve to understand why we've gone a certain way.' Despite impending changes, Swann was adamant the AFL was the 'best game in the world' and anything he did from now was purely to make it as good as it could be. 'I lived up in Queensland obviously and you get rugby league and everything else – our game leaves them in the shade,' he said. 'There's nothing radical that needs to happen because I think the game's a fantastic game. Viewership, attendances, memberships – they're all as high as they've ever been. We just want to make sure that the game is good.'
ABC News
40 minutes ago
- ABC News
InZane RL - Can PVL top the AFL's broadcast deal?
On Inzane Rugby League this week, Zane Bojack and Sam Williams are joined by AAP reporter Joel Gould to talk about the NRL's discussions in the US with Disney, DAZN and Netflix ahead of the next broadcast deal. The trio also talked about the skill of keeping your Captain's Challenge to the dying minutes with NZ, Canterbury and Manly coming up trumps at the weekend. The panel applauded the appointment of Kevin Walters as Kangaroos coach and also played the Quiz and "Yay or Neigh" game with Zane, Joel and Sam questioning how the NRL's salary cap will cope with Cameron Munster looking likely to earn $2 million per season at the Perth Bears.
