League: Eight Queensland players banned for Origin

The Broncos' Ben Hunt is one of eight players banned from Origin duty. Photo / Getty

Ben Hunt, Anthony Milford and Dylan Napa are among a list of six young Queensland stars joining Valentine Holmes and Cameron Munster in Origin purgatory after copping 12-month bans from the interstate arena.

The young stars rounded out by Jarrod Wallace, Edrick Lee and Chris Grevsmuhl have copped the sanction for breaking curfew in the Emerging Origin camp surrounded by controversy after reports first surfaced linking Holmes to a confrontation with the police.

The latest round of bans were announced in Auckland on Friday afternoon after the QRL completed its investigation on the night in question.

"Our initial focus was on Valentine Holmes because of the involvement of the NRL Integrity Unit," QRL managing director Robert Moore said in a statement.

"As we suspected, there were other players who broke curfew and we have now gone through a process of interviewing players. Due to pre-season commitments, we've only been able to finalise that today.

"To the players' credit, they've come forward and because of the importance we place on our QAS Emerging Origin program, they will receive the same sanction as Cameron Munster."

The six fresh bans follow a Courier-Mail report that claimed another eight players besides Holmes and Munster had defied new Maroons coach Kevin Walters' orders and left the camp to go drinking on Saturday night, before breaking a midnight curfew.

Walters, starting his first Origin campaign as head coach, said he was extremely disappointed with how the young players had behaved.

"I'm disappointed with the actions of the players but we need to protect the Queensland State of Origin team," he said.

"It was explained to them in the environment they live in now, they need to make smart choices and unfortunately for them they didn't and we've acted accordingly.

"We received some phone calls from players so I'm more than happy with the honesty the players showed. I'm extremely upset with what has happened, they know they made a poor decision and they are quite upset about it."

Walters made it clear the banned players made a mistake by leaving the hotel room to continue their night out.

"It went wrong when some players decided to head back out. We finished our team activities for the day and some thought it wasn't the end and continued to do what they haven't done," Walters said.

"We all have to be responsible around what we do and what we provide for people. We went to the Story Bridge and had a couple of drinks, but I was very clear about the plan for the evening and what I expected of them.

"Some guys didn't follow the rules and now they are paying the price."

The report also claimed Munster felt like a "scapegoat" and was considering appealing his ban.

The QRL organised peace talks with Melbourne CEO Dave Donaghy in Auckland on Friday to address Munster's concerns.

"We have spoken to Melbourne. There is no issue there," QRL chairman Peter Betros told AAP on Friday.

The Nine Network on Thursday claimed Brisbane star halfback Ben Hunt had admitted to the QRL that he was among up to eight others to have broken the camp curfew.

They also said a sober Dale Copley had helped ferry fellow emerging players including Milford, Grevsmuhl and Napa to Brisbane hotels in his car on Saturday night after Walters told the squad to go to bed.

Copley was not among the players suspended by the QRL.

While Holmes had earlier faced further sanctions for his role in the incident, Moore put that possibility to bed on Friday, due to the Sharks winger's commitment to working with the club's welfare and education team.

-news.com.au