Billy Slater
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Billy Slater | |
| Date of birth | June 18, 1983 | |
| Place of birth | Nambour, Australia | |
| Height | 1.78 m | |
| Weight | 87 kg | |
| Nickname | Billy the Kid | |
| Position | Fullback | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Melbourne | |
| Number | 1 | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| Innisfail Brothers | ||
| Professional clubs* | ||
| Years | Club | Apps (points) |
| 2003–present | Melbourne | 84 (232) |
| Representative teams** | ||
| 2004–2005 | Queensland | 5 (16) |
|
* Professional club appearances and points |
||
Billy Slater (born June 18, 1983 in Nambour, Queensland) is an Australian rugby league player for the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. He has also played for Queensland. His preferred position is Fullback; though he can also play at centre or on the wings.
Contents |
[edit] Playing career
Billy began playing rugby league for the Brothers club in Innisfail, Queensland at only four years old. He continued to make the Innisfail representative side every season until his final year with the club.
At fifteen years of age he become bored with league so he quit to concentrate on one of his other passions, riding horses. He worked with the famous Waterhouse stable for around half a year before becoming homesick.
He began to play league again after returning home and early in 2001 he drove 20 hours to Brisbane to trial with the Norths Devils. He was offered a contract and after two impressive seasons in the Queensland Cup, he was offered a spot on the Melbourne Storm playing roster.
[edit] Melbourne Storm
Slater commenced playing for the Melbourne Storm in 2003 and his impressive debut performance should have seen him awarded the Dally M Rookie of the Year award, but these awards were cancelled by the NRL due to threats of a boycott by the Players Association. He has consistently performed since then. He is notable for his speed, instinctive style of play and an ability to inject himself into games at key moments.
[edit] 2006 season
In his 4th season, Slater was suspended in round 4 for seven matches for kicking Wests Tigers prop John Skandalis. In his comeback game in round 13 against the Sydney Roosters, Slater only played 25 minutes of the second half on the wing and was later found guilty of using a dangerous throw on Roosters centre Ryan Cross. He was suspended for 2 matches. After Slater's second suspension, Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy decided to give Slater some warm up matches for his comeback into first grade with both North Sydney Bears (Melbourne's feeder club in the NSWRL Premier League) and Norths Devils (Melbourne's feeder club in the Queensland Cup). He made his proper comeback in round 18 playing his preferred fullback position when Melbourne Storm defeated the Brisbane Broncos at Olympic Park 10-4 in front of 15,479 fans. Slater was then suspended for a third time for 2 matches in round 22 for a late forearm to the Wests Tigers fullback. He came back to the main lineup in round 25. Later in that year he played in his first grand final, where he played a fine game.
[edit] Representative games
- Queensland: 5 games total for Queensland in the State of Origin
