The 16-month feud between Ezra Mam and Spencer Leniu is over after the pair shared a heartfelt embrace in the middle of Optus Stadium after Wednesday night’s State of Origin.
Vision captured by this masthead shows Leniu exchanging words with Mam – Queensland’s 18th man – after the game and the pair sharing a hug more than a year after the racial slur that hijacked the NRL’s landmark season-opener in Las Vegas.
Despite the disappointment of an agonising loss to Queensland, Leniu on Wednesday night apologised to Mam for calling him a “monkey” in the match between the Roosters and Broncos in Las Vegas that launched the 2024 season.
“It’s great that me and Spencer got the chance to see each other face to face last night,” Mam said.
“As for the racial vilification issue, that’s in the past now. We’ve moved forward. The story in the media that said I thought I was being booed at Brookvale because of this issue is not true. I understand the situation and why that happened and will continue to work on being a better person and making the right choices.”
Broncos and Maroons forward Patrick Carrigan, who was one of the players who confronted Leniu in the team hotel in Las Vegas following the incident last year, watched the embrace in Perth with interest but did not involve himself.
Ezra Mam and Spencer Leniu on the middle of Optus Stadium on Wednesday night.Credit:
Leniu was banned from the game for eight weeks for the slur. Leniu has denied intentionally racially vilifying Mam, and said he thought it was “one brown man saying something to another brown man”.
The fallout from the incident spilled over again this year after Leniu took aim at Channel Nine commentator Johnathan Thurston for comments on a podcast stating his belief that Leniu’s slur warranted a harsher punishment.
Leniu retaliated and accused Thurston of being “two-faced” and “fake” following an on-field run-in back in April when Leniu’s Roosters played the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.
Thurston hit back the next day, claiming he had been “shocked” by Leniu’s verbal attack, “which was not of a racial nature, but overly aggressive in tone and unwarranted”.
Spencer Leniu and Johnathan Thurston at Suncorp Stadium earlier in the year.Credit: NRL Photos
Leniu posted on his Instagram account: “I never wanted to talk to JT. He kept trying to come speak to me. I said, ‘Lad idc [I don’t care] if that you hate me for what I did. But don’t come up to me asking me questions like we’re Algood (sic). Don’t be two face. Hate me lad I’m eetswa [sweet] with that. But don’t be fake. I hate fake people.”
Leniu has been on a self-imposed media ban since then, but sought out Mam on Wednesday night to clear the air and put an end to tensions with the Broncos playmaker.
Mam was back in the headlines when he was charged with drug-driving earlier this year. He recently returned from an NRL-imposed nine-game suspension and was selected as part of the Queensland squad for game two.
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