Comment: ‘Rattled’ Slater selfishly putting himself before state

Billy Slater has been accused of a disrespectful act after a clear sign that State of Origin has finally got to the Queensland coach.

Billy Slater and David Fifita need to smoke the peace pipe.

COMMENT

Remember when NSW was the state with all the arsenal at its disposal? And how it kept aiming it at its own foot?

Now it’s Queensland self-sabotaging by neglecting their own — and it’s all because Billy Slater is cranky with David Fifita.

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Slater may be Mr Swank with his neat chinos and big words, but he’s either sniffing the same texta he keeps putting through Fifita’s name or he’s got a vendetta that he just can’t shake.

His ongoing snub of the back-rower has plunged such absurdity that nobody would be surprised if he overlooked him for a pineapple, which many argue he has by picking Kurt Capewell.

With respect to Capewell — one of Queensland’s great faceless tackle-bags — he’s hardly the chilli-infused counterpunch they need to help turn around the MCG debacle.

But even though he can barely get on the paddock for the Warriors, the coach has deemed him a superior danger to Fifita and his widow-making thighs.

“Dave was a serious consideration but we feel that the 17 players that have been chosen are the 17 players that have earned the opportunity to be here,” Slater claimed.

“All Queenslanders are considered and Dave is a name that has been in the conversation for all games. He started the season a bit behind the eight-ball and he’s still working back to the standard that he created for himself last year. I’m sure he’d be the first to admit that.

“... ultimately this is the 17 we feel is the right 17 for the game next week.”

Forget this woefully corporate explanation, this is Slater putting personal beef before the state’s interests — and he’s effectively wiping his toosh with King Wally’s blazer by doing so.

Not only do the Maroons severely need Fifita’s robust physicality after getting levelled in game two, Slater’s tortuous treatment of the Titan is an outrageous breach of Maroons policy.

As any Queenslander will moan, their state must nurture every morsel of talent at their disposal because they believe their pool of options is tiny compared to NSW’s, even though they’ve claimed the entire Pacific and all we get is the ACT.

But Slater is mismanaging this pool so poorly that he’s also dumped Jaydn Su’a in the midst of this power shortage and it still wasn’t the weirdest decision he made that day.

Billy Slater and David Fifita need to smoke the peace pipe.

Yep, in the aftermath of one of the state’s most brutal emasculations, Slater has also ignored the might of Su’a in favour of Jeremiah Nanai, an ultra-athletic option that’s akin to replacing a Landcruiser with a pushbike.

Is NSW inside Slater’s head deeper than Excalibur’s sword? Or has he spent too much time on the couch next to Freddy?

Considering all his other absurd behaviour of recent times — cancelling a media day, speaking out his backside 24/7 — it seems Origin has finally rattled him.

Which on the eve of a decider is bloody great timing for us Blues fans.

That’s because outside of playing the victim, there is no easier assignment for a Maroons coach than winning a decider at Suncorp.

It’s a place where Queenslanders grow an extra leg, giving them the advantage of a team of four-legged men and a crowd of 55,000 people with two heads filled with four X.

It’s also a place where NSW get nothing from the referee and even less from Lady Luck, the latter who is as ‘Queensland’ as Pauline Hanson and twice as discriminate.

David Fifita. Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images.

In fact, NSW’s record is so goddamn awful in Suncorp deciders the Maroons could pick 17 pot plants and recite them Rupert McCall’s poetry and they’d still salute 13+.

But for some reason, Slater is desperate to make the simple look ‘simple’.

He is clearly panicking by cancelling media commitments — a move that risks upsetting the team’s most fervent supporters, the Queensland press — and his Slaterisms have become weapons-grade prattle even by Queensland standards.

Sure, all this stuff about “we’re still Queenslanders” and “getting our footy on” and “taking it like a true Queenslander” may strike a chord in a state of dreadful NAPLAN scores, but to everyone else it’s a sure sign the cuckoos in the belfry have come home to roost.

Of course, Queenslanders continue to trust in Billy, mainly because they’re loyal and that’s how Stockholm Syndrome works.

But don’t say we didn’t warn you.

This bloke’s got serious beef — but it isn’t in the back row where it should be.

— Dane Eldridge is a warped cynic yearning for the glory days of rugby league, a time when the sponges were magic and the Mondays were mad. He’s never strapped on a boot in his life, and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Originally published as Comment: ‘Rattled’ Slater selfishly putting himself before state