State of Origin: Queensland coach Billy Slater reveals his guiding principles

Leadership, fearlessness, faith and trust; Queensland coach Billy Slater opens up on the coaching philosophy that is driving Queensland towards a rare Origin hat-trick.

Billy Slater sub image for 7 things

They are the ‘Seven Commandments’ of a coaching perfectionist that have put Queensland on the cusp of a rare Origin hat-trick.

As the Maroons chase a threepeat in Wednesday night’s decider at Suncorp Stadium, Billy Slater has opened up about the methods that have seen him make a successful transition from playing to Origin coaching.

Raw, vulnerable and honest, it’s a rare insight into the mind of a rugby league champion. Slater may have been blessed with natural talent as a player but it’s his methodologies on the human psyche as a coach that have underpinned Queensland’s surge to back-to-back Origin titles on his watch.

“It has set the playing group up for what they have done the last two years,” Slater says.

When his predecessor Paul Green severed ties with Maroons at the end of the 2021 series, there was a view Queensland were in a state of coaching crisis.

The Queensland Rugby League decided they couldn’t keep going back to the well with Mal Meninga or Wayne Bennett, who had coached the Maroons in four separate stints spanning 34 years.

Fresh blood was needed. QRL director Darryl van de Velde was the first to push for Slater. He was adamant the code’s greatest fullback possessed a beautiful mind as a coach. Van de Velde, who sadly died in February aged 72, has been vindicated.

His legacy lives on in Slater, who has detailed the guiding principles that have Queensland one win away from clinching just their fifth series hat-trick in 44 years on Wednesday night.

Billy Slater believes that if you reward regularly (with praise), then when it’s time to give constructive criticism or feedback, it’s taken in the right way. Picture: Getty Images

1. PRAISE COMES BEFORE CRITICISM

When Slater signed on as Queensland coach, he enlisted the help of Hugh van Cuylenburg, a mental-strength coach he first met in 2015 at the Melbourne Storm.

When van Cuylenburg walked in to greet the Storm group, including Cameron Smith, Slater rolled his eyes. Another mind coach. Another self-styled guru.

Within five minutes, Slater’s professional sporting world changed forever.

Van Cuylenburg stopped briefly, wondering if he was wasting his time.

“Keep going,” Slater said. “This is f***ing awesome”.

Fast forward seven years and Slater is sitting down with his Queensland coaching assistants. It’s late. The players have gone to bed. The coaching unit begins a review.

One assistant says he gave a player some feedback. It went down like a lead balloon.

“How many times have you told him how good you think he is,” Slater asks.

Jolted, his assistant replies: “I don’t think I have at all.”

Slater provides context.

“Well don’t expect an outcome if you don’t tell them how good they are,” he adds.

Van Cuylenburg recounts this story during a recent one-hour interview on his podcast, the Imperfects, with Slater, who has positive reinforcement as the centrepiece of his coaching style.

“It’s something I became conscious of at the back end of my career as a more senior player,” Slater tells.

“As someone that demanded a lot from my teammates, if you reward regularly (with praise), then when it’s time to give constructive criticism or feedback, it’s taken in the right way because that person you are talking to knows you are in their corner.

“I suppose I am a senior person in the Queensland team being a coach, but I never set out to be a leader. I just liked the idea of being a good person and setting a good example.

“It’s important to pick up on everything. You can’t just pick up on the bad things, because then the person doesn’t know if you are in their corner or not.

“When you have that credit in the bank, those standards you are trying to pick up in a player are taken the right way.”

Slater talking tactics with Reece Walsh and Ezra Mam. Picture: Liam Kidston

2. LEAD WITH ACTION

“I got set a great example early in my professional sporting life,” Slater said.

“I was about 19 years old. The first time down at the Melbourne Storm, I got an opportunity to train in pre-season.

“It just so happened to be Craig Bellamy’s first year as coach of the Storm.

“We would get to training at 6am that year and Craig would be on the rower, sweating, working, and halfway through the day we would run The Tan or do hills at Studley Park and Craig Bellamy would be in group one doing it with the players.

“Then we would leave training at 5.30 in the afternoon and Craig would be there doing video, watching the skills session, cutting video for the next day.

“I got a vision of what a leader looked like.

“Craig Bellamy’s greatest attribute is his work ethic.

“If you want a good work ethic within your players, if you want a good work ethic in your organisation, you can’t expect them to have it, but you not have it.

“So you have to lead the way. Craig led the way for me in that regard.”

It partly explains why Slater is often seen in Camp Maroons taking part in opposed sessions. At 41, he is still fit and fast enough to keep pace with the current Maroons. He will jump into fullback and run angles for Reece Walsh. He puts bombs up for players.

“I am conscious the players are always watching me,” he said.

“But I’m not trying to manufacture that. Players are always watching. They see everything.

“If they see people who are leading this organisation, that becomes infectious in the whole group.”

3. HELP OTHERS

“During Covid, I was stuck up in Queensland,” Slater recalls.

“My family were back in Victoria. They were in lockdown and I stayed up in Queensland to call games for Channel 9.

“I was up there for about three or four weeks without my family and the situation ... I was getting really down.

“I remember Hugh saying to me, ‘If you ever get down, go and do something for someone else’.

“I went for a run along the beach and I grabbed a coffee and before I got a coffee, I saw a lady sitting on a picnic bench. She was homeless and sleeping there.

“So I bought two coffees, went and sat down with her and had a chat.

“My mum and dad brought me up to be a good person, to have respect for everyone, and that’s where it stems from. I grew up in a working class family.

“My mum worked two jobs and we rented our whole lives.

“That (his encounter with the homeless lady) was something I will remember for the rest of my life.”

Billy Slater addresses the Maroons after yet another Origin win. Credit: NRL Images.

4. DON’T FEAR FAILURE

Some coaches give players the dreaded ‘hook’ when they make a major error at a critical moment of a big game. Slater says he never wants his Maroons players to live in fear.

“Don’t be afraid to make a mistake,” Slater says.

“We often say in our Queensland environment, we are not perfect. Be brave.

“If we make a mistake, we support each other, but we don’t try and be perfect.

“If you are perfect, you aren’t trying hard enough. You aren’t pushing your limits if you aren’t making mistakes. Mistakes are a part of life. It’s part of any elite sport.

“Making a mistake just gives you something to grow from.

“At the end of the day, what can you do about it?

“That’s the biggest question you have to ask yourself.

“The great players like Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Johnathan Thurston, they can move on and transition from that disappointment into what is important for us as a team and individual now.

“They can overcome that adversity.

Queensland coach Billy Slater has put a rocket up the Maroons during a brutal honesty session ahead of next week’s Origin series decider.

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5. BUILD TRUST

Slater owns a 20-acre boutique stud farm in Melbourne. Operating Slater Thoroughbreds has given the Maroons mentor an insight into how he wants to connect with his players.

“I enjoy working with horses and that has given me as much leadership knowledge as anything in my life,” he said.

“You have to build a partnership with a horse. It’s not a dictatorship. You have to earn their respect and the right that you are not going to hurt them. They are a prey animal.

“Earning is really big in my life. The focus on earning turns your mindset to working hard for it and putting in the hard yards.

“I haven’t really said this very much, but I don’t like the term ‘winning’. To me, winning has an element of luck to it. I am more connected to the word earning.

“Everything you get in life you have earnt.

“To me winning, you win Lotto, that’s an element of luck.

“You know in yourself when you earn something, or when you get lucky with something. When you set some disciplined goals in your life - it doesn’t have to be sport - you don’t need a trophy, you know when you have earned something.

“You have to earn people’s respect and earn the right to be a leader.”

6. RESPOND DON’T REACT

It’s halftime in Origin III last year. Queensland are trailing 18-10. Slater and his coaching staff head to the Accor Stadium lifts. It breaks.

Panicked, a stressed young lift attendant keep pressing the button. Nothing. It’s tense.

Rather than blow up, Slater urges calm. He pats the attendant on the back as they begin walking to the coaching box, missing the restart.

“I realise once I walk out the dressing room, I have little control of what happens next,” he said.

“When I started out as coach, I got some good advice - try and respond rather than react.

“In that situation, reacting to the lift not working would get us nowhere.

“Doing that would create more anxiety.

“It’s been a big thing for me to let go of responsibility and give that to the players, to not try and control everything.

“You can’t control everything. If you do try and control too much, the players feel like they don’t have it. They have to feel it’s their way.

“We are merely guiding this group and the success they’ve had over the last two years, I don’t feel I can take credit for that.

“The players have gone out and done it.”

Billy Slater pictured before the start of Game Two at the MCG in Melbourne. Picture Instagram @qldmaroons

7. TOUGH LOVE

Slater is no soft touch.

The Maroons coach still drives the high standards he lived by as a player, but he strives for a balance between care and candid feedback in a cutthroat environment that chases greatness.

“We still have to give tough and honest feedback, but if it’s fair, that’s when it’s taken right,” he said.

“If you go through life and you never get criticism and get that tough conversation, especially from people who are close to you, that creates more weakness than toughness.

“There are some non-negotiables in our team that everyone needs to abide by.

“You need to get to know each individual. Relationships are important. Were they born in Australia? Have they got a different nationality? What was their childhood like?

“You need to understand people to get the best out of them.

“We’re in a high-pressure situation and you want to try and achieve something, but we also want to create an enjoyable environment.

“The tactical side of coaching is important, but it’s nearly less important than the environment you are setting and the reason why players are playing.

“Coaching is just guiding. Our players know they are playing for the people of Queensland.

“For me it’s directing that energy into the right avenue to bring that out on Origin night.

“Having smiles on people’s faces while they are in the Queensland team makes them want to go back there.

“This isn’t my team. It’s not anyone’s team but the people of Queensland’s.

“Whilst I am head coach of the Queensland team, that’s the way it will be.”