‘Thanks for the memories!’ Retiring Melbourne champion Billy Slater’s tribute to fans

I WAS born a proud Queenslander but Melbourne will always be my home and that all comes down to the fans. Billy Slater tells of the support from the Storm fans, young and old, that still blows him away.

Billy Slater with his family. Picture: David Caird

THANK you, Melbourne.

I heard you.

Your support has meant so much to me and my family over the past 16 years.

This is home for us now, too. I never thought that was going to be the case when I packed up the car and left Innisfail, Queensland.

It has been a great journey.

I will miss the big games in Melbourne, at both Olympic Park and AAMI Park, walking back to your position after scoring and hearing the support for the Storm and people chanting your name.

There’s nothing better.

It is pretty special to know how much we mean to the fans.

You meet the fans all of the time.

Billy Slater with his family after announcing his retirement. Picture: David Caird

Young and old, from all walks of life.

At training, before and after games, special events and walking down the street.

Even driving past in the car, sometimes.

That still blows my mind.

How people recognise me with hat and sunnies on when I’m going 60 or 80 kilometres-an-hour.

But people are very respectful down here.

It is certainly not a fish bowl and I quite enjoy that.

All in a day’s work for Billy, good luck trying to count the number autographs and selfies taken over the past 16 seasons. Picture: AAP

We do get caught up, occasionally, in our little world and kick stones about dropping a ball or missing a tackle.

Then you come across the fans, often kids, fighting a bigger battle than what you’re going through and they haven’t got a worry in the world.

It certainly puts things in perspective.

In 2015, a little boy, a Storm supporter, came up to me at a signing session in Melbourne for the Queensland team and said: “Hi Billy Slater, My name’s Joel and I’ve got cystic fibrosis.”

I’ll be honest, at the time, I didn’t know what cystic fibrosis was.

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He was just so proud to be himself, and didn’t shy away from the disease that he had.

I went back to my hotel room and googled cystic fibrosis to read up a little bit about it and thought what a great little man, how courageous and strong he must be to go through what he goes through and to still have that drive and passion in life.

That has always stuck in my mind.

Now that young boy, Joel, is actually in my son’s footy team. It’s good to see him more regularly.

Another time, in Sydney, about 10 years ago, a little boy, his name is Harry, was watching us play at Parramatta.

He was only seven or eight, I think, and the crowd weren’t saying nice things about me.

The little fella was in tears and had to go home early with his mum.

The club found out and brought him down to Melbourne, I ended up meeting him, and he got to watch a game here.

Harry has ended up being our ball boy in Sydney ever since and he’s now studying to be a doctor.

It is important, to me, to leave a lasting impression and send a young fan away with a great memory because I was that fan, 30 years ago, idolising Allan Langer.

Billy Slater idolised Queensland legend Alfie Langer when he was 10 years old. Picture: Supplied

The sport has grown quickly and I’m proud to be a part of that.

We play a game, we’re entertainers, and we’ve got a wonderful job to go out there and make people happy, put a smile on their face and hopefully send them off, more times than not, winners.

There wasn’t a huge awareness of rugby league when I moved here, there was understanding but I think it grew once we had that patch (2006-09) where we made four grand finals in a row.

Looking back, the salary cap controversy, as hard as it is to say, probably grew the awareness as well.

It is part of our story, our history and as much as it hurt to go through it built a lot of character.

The success we had after that is something I’m very proud to be a part of, winning premierships in 2012 and 2017.

We go again, on Friday.

Hope to hear you there.

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Originally published as ‘Thanks for the memories!’ Retiring Melbourne champion Billy Slater’s tribute to fans