He was handed the Queensland captaincy at the last minute following Cameron Smith’s shock representative retirement. A proud moment, sure, but the Maroons ended up losing the series on his watch. He suffered a broken thumb in the final match and was sidelined for six weeks. He returned to his brutal best as Souths made their run at the premiership, only to be cut down by the Roosters in the preliminary final. Remorseful: Greg Inglis said he knows there are standards in the game to uphold. Credit:Louie Douvis Now he’d just been told he was captain of his country. Inglis had every right to be proud, especially sitting among the people he had grown up with in his home towns of Bowraville and Macksville. “Wall Street is a street where we grew up and we’d just go to different front yards and play football after school pretty much every day,” Inglis told Dubbo’s local paper, The Daily Liberal. “So back to where it all started. It’s a young side and I’m just glad we’ve got our family and mob playing together.”

Inglis drank into the early hours of Monday, and then started the long drive back to Sydney at about noon with two of his cousins also in the car. Loading At 2.15pm, he was pulled over by police for speeding and returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.085. He was charged with mid-range drink driving offences and had his license immediately suspended. Inglis lost more than his right to drive. On Tuesday afternoon, he didn’t just lose the Australian captaincy but was also suspended for this month’s Test matches. Premiership-winning Roosters captain Boyd Cordner will take over as skipper. Inglis’ Rabbitohs and Maroons teammate Dane Gagai has been called into the 19-man squad but Latrell Mitchell is certain to now line-up at left centre instead of Inglis in the starting side.

“I don't think I've let my country down,” Inglis said in his mea culpa media conference at Redfern. “I think I let a lot of people down because of where I stand in the game as an Indigenous role model, and a lot of kids down and a lot of people down in the sense of the community. “I’m sincerely apologetic. I know where I stand in the game as a role model to the community and what I have been charged with is unacceptable on my behalf.” Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The NRL quickly arrived at the right decision to stand down Inglis, but there were others who were agitating for a different result. Meninga, it’s understood, was reluctant to axe Inglis from the side. The QRL sniffs a conspiracy to give Cordner the captaincy. Speaking on radio earlier in the day, Storm coach Craig Bellamy wanted no sanctions at all.

“I’d like to see them just forgive him and let him play and let him be the captain,” Bellamy, Inglis’ former coach, said. “But I know there are standards in the game to uphold.” Some at the NRL were surprised Inglis didn’t stand himself down in the first instance, waiting on the NRL to do it for him. Loading It was a tricky situation for head office because it usually waits until a player appears in court before handing out sanctions. Inglis won’t appear in Lithgow Local Court until November 22, long after the Test matches are played. Canberra forward Josh Papalii lost his place in the Australian side in April last year after the ACT Magistrates Court fined him $1000 and disqualified him from driving for eight months after he pleaded guilty to a drink driving in January that year.

The Papalii story was complex. He called the police and effectively reported himself, something magistrate Peter Morrison described in court as a “cry for help”. Inglis refused to blame his error of judgement on his well-publicised issues with mental health, which saw him admitted to a rehab clinic in western Sydney last year after he suffered a season-ending ACL injury. “Greg … are you OK?” one reporter asked dramatically. “Me?” he replied. “Yeah, this has got nothing to do with my mental health. This has everything (to do) with me making one of those silly mistakes and a stupid mistake I should not have done.” Inglis’ stupid mistake continued a long tradition of rugby league players messing up at the worst possible time. Roosters halfback Todd Carney once went DUI on his way to a breakfast meeting with club chairman Nick Politis … to discuss his issues with alcohol.

Instead of celebrating a brilliant Roosters premiership the day after the grand final, the game’s focus quickly shifted to the new Australian captain getting busted for drink driving. Inglis’ actions completely contradict the Kangaroos’ RISE (Respect, Inspire, Selfless, Excellence) values adopted by Meninga. Is this the end of Inglis’ time in green and gold? “I hope to see him back in a Kangaroos jersey next year,” Meninga said. “Greg has been an integral part of the team for many years and I expect him to be back. “No one respects those values more than Greg and we look forward to him returning to the team next year. Greg was in fact an integral part of the creation of the RISE values.