After several days of celebrating and no sleep following Melbourne Storm's premiership win, Maroons star Cameron Munster put on quite the display during team photo day on the eve of game one of the Origin series.
Munster quickly became the meme of the series after not looking in the greatest shape, and his face said it all.
In an attempt to keep celebrating with Storm teammates, Munster asked Queensland to delay him joining the camp, but that was quickly shut down. And a phone call later to coach Wayne Bennett was also quick to be shut down.
Speaking on The Skipper and The Prez podcast with former NRL player Justin Horo, Munster recalled the events of the team photo.
“It’s pretty much a blur. I’ve got a very vague memory,” Munster told Horo.
“I was sitting there signing jerseys for the premiership and I had Cooper (Johns) on my left and Brandon (Smith) on my right … and it doesn’t take too much to convince me to have a beer.
“Brandon said ‘let’s just make a meal of it and we’ll go to Byron for a night or two, let’s just celebrate a bit more’.
“And I then I had Cooper Johns in my ear and he’s the best at giving a motivational speech and getting you up – and it got me up.
“So I just remember ringing (Bennett) and the call didn’t take too long. It was pretty much just ‘mate, get your f***ing arse here’. It didn’t really go down too well.”
Munster made the trip to the Gold Coast still not in the greatest shape, and later explained that he made his ride wait for a number of hours for him while trying to convince himself to get to the QLD camp in the way he was.
“There was a person waiting out the front for one or two hours while I was trying to convince myself I was going into camp. So then we got to the Gold Coast and I was still off no sleep,” he said.
Munster then received news that as he got to the camp, it was time for team photos.
“I got into camp and was told we had to do team photos and I looked at them said ‘you’ve got to be kidding me … give me one more day, look at me’,” Munster said.
“We had to do singles, we had to do team photos and we had to do the spine as well … I can’t imagine what I was looking like in those other photos, but I was pretty much falling asleep in the team photo.”
After upsetting NSW in the origin series, Munster was ready to party again and had organised for DJ Fisher, who had already partied with AFL star Dustin Martin after Richmond's Grand Final win, to join the team for some more celebrations. But, he was a no show, which Munster wasn't too pleased about.
“Don’t get me started. I was calling all hours of the morning, all hours of the night, trying to get him there because I got some of the boys to stay an extra night because I was that confident he was coming,” Munster told Horo.
“He texted me Sunday morning saying ‘sorry mate, I had a big weekend’. He ended up hanging out with Dusty and that so I can imagine why he didn’t turn up.
“I was pretty filthy … but it’s all right, he said he owes me one and he’s not a bad person to (having owing to you) so I’ll make sure I take it up soon.”
Munster added he felt grateful to even be in the same category of athlete as Andrew Johns and Dustin Martin, and he knew his place behind them.
“There’s only one Joey – and Dusty. Very grateful to be in that category, but I’ve got a long way to go,” he said.
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