‘A challenge’: Billy Slater opens up on life after NRL

Just two years after hanging up his boots, NRL great and newly named Queensland Origin coach Billy Slater has lifted the lid on his new reality, which is a far cry from screaming fans and camera lights.

At the end of 2019, a year after he retired from playing rugby league, Melbourne Storm and Queensland Origin great Billy Slater moved from inner-city Melbourne to a farm 40 minutes away, with his wife Nicole and children Tyla and Jake. It is a choice that he (almost) never regrets.

“Every morning the kids get up and feed the horses before they do homeschooling,” Slater

tells Stellar On Friday. It’s a lifestyle change that Slater, originally from far north Queensland, believes wouldn’t have been possible were it not for his success in the game.

“I’ll never replace the euphoria of the game” (Picture: Supplied)

“As I’ve got older and experienced the different side of the NRL, I understand the

business and entertainment side of the game more. I can see that everything I’ve achieved in my life is because the game is so popular,” he says.

“I grew up in working-class Queensland, in a family of renters. The fact I can buy my own house is because the game is enormously popular and players have been able to profit from that.”

Moving to the farm, where the family breed thoroughbred horses, seems idyllic but Slater

admits it hasn’t been without its difficulties.

“Moving away from the kids’ close-knit group of friends was a challenge,” says the newly minted Mazda BT-50 ambassador.

Find more exclusives in this Sunday’s Stellar.

“But with kids there are always challenges – whether they’re two, 12 or 22. Nicole and I just try to raise them to be good people with good values; so far, so good.”

And being in Melbourne hasn’t stopped Slater from being part of the NRL final series being played in Queensland.

As a commentator for the Nine Network, he’s been part of the coverage, which he believes is one of the best things about retirement. “When you’re playing, you don’t get to see the emotional packages before games that help with the build-up,” he says.

“Although I’ll never really replace the euphoria that playing competitive sport gave me, I’m grateful to have a more balanced life now.”