Over lunch, the NRL legend turned Queensland coach, sports commentator and horse breeder will share not only a platter of succulent beef but also morsels on everything from how he reckons the Broncos will fare next season and why Ezra Mam deserves a second chance to his new-found love of wave pool surfing.

We’re dining at The Star Gold Coast, where Slater and wife Nicole are staying during a quick promotional trip for the upcoming Magic Millions carnival. Both are ambassadors for the January horse racing and sales extravaganza, alongside the likes of Chris Hemsworth’s better half Elsa Pataky, British royals Zara and Mike Tindall and Argentine polo star, actor and model Nacho Figueras and his wife, photographer/fashionista Delfina Blaquier.

It’s been a whirlwind couple of months for Slater.

Between running his Slater Thoroughbreds stud outside Melbourne, he was part of Nine’s commentary team for the NRL grand final which his beloved Melbourne Storm lost to the Penrith Panthers, celebrated Nicole’s 40th with a family trip to the United Arab Emirates (with a surf at Kelly Slater’s new Abu Dhabi wave pool thrown in), called the Pacific Championship rugby league final between Australia and Tonga and then did the post-race interviews on horseback for at the Melbourne Cup.

It was his first foray into race broadcasting in a role traditionally performed by former top jockeys, and he confessed to being “a bit nervous” – especially when it looked like Japanese hoop Akira Sugawara might win the big race on Warp Speed.

Slater’s mind flashed back to ex-champion jockey Johnny Letts’ famous post-race “interview” with 2006 Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Yasunari Iwata aboard another Japanese raider, Delta Blues.

Iwata barely spoke English and Letts managed to get just two quotes – “very happy” and “super horse” – in what he later lamented was “the shortest interview ever”.

Slater had horror visions of a repeat performance but was saved by Irish jockey Robbie Dolan, who stormed home on Queensland rank outsider Knight’s Choice to win the Cup ahead of Warp Speed.

“I had to watch the race on my phone from the back straight but then the 5G went down because so many people were on their phones, so I didn’t get to see the actual finish,” he said.

“They went past me and all I’ve got in my head is the Johnny Letts interview, which I’d watched in the lead-up. Then all I hear (in the commentary) is ‘Warp Speed’. I was like, ‘surely not … please no!’” (laughs).

Slater actually broke the news to Dolan that he’d won, and was able to get a cracking emotion-charged interview from the singing jockey, starting with the immortal line: “Pinch me, I think I’m dreaming.”

Despite his early nerves, the Maroons great looked very comfortable on a steed with microphone in hand. And indeed he is.

He’s been around horses all his life, starting as a kid growing up in Innisfail where he first rode on his paternal grandfather William Slater’s property. He met Nicole through pony club as teens riding in local gymkhanas and showjumping events.

“I cop a bit of flak when I say I was in pony club but the ratio of girls to boys was very much in my favour,” he said with his trademark pearly grin.

Slater started riding trackwork at the Innisfail Turf Club when he was 14 and, at 16, left school for the bright lights of Sydney where he did a stint as a stablehand and trackwork rider with legendary trainer Gai Waterhouse, working seven days a week for $5.12 an hour.

Along with his parents and grandparents, he credits Waterhouse and his long-time Storm coach Craig Bellamy with helping instil in him his work ethic.

“One thing that stuck with me from my brief time at Gai’s stable was just her work ethic,” he says.

“She has a great energy and enthusiasm and she was there every day, from the early morning.

She had that routine and you can see why she’s successful. She’s not dissimilar to the coach (Bellamy) I had at Melbourne for a long time – just that want and will to go out and chase whatever they wanted to be good at.”

But rugby league beckoned and Slater returned to Queensland to play for the Innisfail Leprechauns U18s before joining Norths Devils in Brisbane and then being snapped up by the Storm. During a glittering 16-year NRL career, he scored a club record 190 tries with Melbourne in 319 games as well as making 31 appearances for Queensland and 30 for Australia.

Since hanging up his boots in 2018, he’s worked as a Channel Nine commentator while also running his Slater Thoroughbreds boutique stud, breeding horses including a colt called Buck that will go under the hammer at next month’s Magic Millions yearling sales.

He shares the property with Nicole, an acclaimed equestrian artist, and their children Tyla, 16, and Jake, 14.

As The Star’s executive chef Daniel Fox dishes up a 200-day grain-fed Darling Downs tomahawk with sides including rib-rub corn ribs, Slater also reveals that he’s breeding quarter horses with fellow horse enthusiast and Broncos’ new star recruit, Ben Hunt.

Which brings me to how he thinks the Broncos might go next season under new coach Michael Maguire – Slater’s now former Origin adversary – after their 2024 year from hell?

“I think they’re in for a good season,” he said.

“Obviously the Ben Hunt signing’s a really good one. I know Ben really well and away from what he’ll bring on the field, he’s a great lad and he’s got a great character to him as well.”

A Broncos fan as a kid before the North Queensland Cowboys entered the NRL, Slater said it wasn’t for him to say if Brisbane made the right call in sacking club legend Kevin Walters as coach – “but from the outside looking in, it was probably a little bit harsh”.

“You’re so close to holding up a premiership trophy and 11 months later, you are out the door,” he said.

“If you sacked the players that played in last year’s grand final, would you call it harsh?”

But he said the Broncos did get it right in not sacking star half Ezra Mam after his infamous alleged drug-driving crash at Bardon last month.

“From the dealings I’ve had with Ezra in pre-season Origin camps, he’s a really good guy who obviously has some personal stuff going on and has made a really crucial mistake,” Slater said.

“I think everyone deserves a second chance, I really do. Unless you’re talking to someone that’s perfect, we’ve all had second chances, haven’t we?

“I hope everyone that’s been involved in the situation comes through the other side, including Ezra.”

Slater also doesn’t buy into the “rock star” criticism of Broncos marquee Reece Walsh.

“I see the labels that a lot of journalists put on him, but I don’t see that in Reece,” he said.

“He’s a very respectful guy who works bloody hard and he’s got a great want to be as good as he possibly can in our game. The best athletes in the world are confident and he’s confident in what he can deliver on a footy field, but he works bloody hard at it too. And I’ve seen that first-hand.”

As for whether the Maroons can bounce back next year, Slater said: “Yeah, look, I hope so. I’d like us to think that we can extract the best out of us more than we did this year. I just felt that we probably didn’t play to our true capabilities and that’ll be the goal.”

He wouldn’t be drawn on a likely replacement for Maguire as NSW coach and whoever was chosen would be “more than capable and do a great job”.

“We know how passionate both states are in this arena and to be fair, you could probably take the coaches out and the players could coach themselves, and they’d still put on an incredible performance.”

As lunch nears an end, we discuss our mutual love of surfing. Slater says he’s usually too busy to get to the beach but regularly hits the Urbnsurf wave park neighbouring Tullamarine Airport when jetting in and out of Melbourne.

He whips out his phone and shows me a video of him and son Jake surfing the Abu Dhabi wave pool. While Slater might not be quite up to co-commentator Andrew ‘Joey’ Johns’ standard, he’s definitely no “kook”. And he’s clearly stoked, as they also say in surfing parlance.

If the surf’s up on the Goldy come January, he might just sneak away from Magic Millions for a sly wave.

Slater gave the tomahawk an 8/10. He’s a tough marker – I gave it an 11.