NRL grand final 2018: Billy Slater freed to be play decider

Billy Slater provided nearly an hour of detailed evidence before a panel of ex-players cleared him to play in his final game.

Melbourne Storm fullback Billy Slater, coach Craig Bellamy and CEO Dave Donaghy after the hearing. Picture: John Feder.

Bambi lives.

“Do you mind if I stand up?” Billy Slater asked during a marathon NRL judiciary hearing of unbearable tension. He spoke passionately and desperately while re-enacting the shoulder charge on Cronulla’s Sosaia Feki that threatened to end his career.

He provided nearly an hour of detailed evidence before the panel of ex-Sydney Roosters captain Sean Garlick, ex-Test forward Bob Lindner and ex-Manly hooker Mal Cochrane cleared the Melbourne Storm fullback for the final match of his career — Sunday night’s blockbuster NRL grand final against the Sydney Roosters. He fought back tears when the decision was announced.

“It was important to me to get my point across and what my intentions were in this incident,” he said after the hearing. “Now it’s important for me to focus on the game. I haven’t started my preparation for the game as yet. That starts as of now.

“Now it’s time to think about the grand final.”

Providing an animated version of events, Slater said his collision with Feki was caused by the Cronulla winger changing direction rather than doing his normal routine of gunning for the corner post. Slater estimated his own speed at 33km/h at the point of contact and claimed he was powerless to avoid the nature of the hit.

“I try to understand patterns in opposition players,” he told the panel. “I look at wingers and how they like to score their tries. I watched every try their wingers had scored this year. Feki scored eight tries and in every single one, he pinned his ears and went for the corner. I knew he liked to back himself and go for the corner post.”

Slater was like a kid in a school principal’s office who believed he had done nothing wrong. He was polite, but adamant of his innocence. Clearly, he was a nervous wreck. His right foot constantly tapped the floor. Pointing at still frames on the big screen, Slater continued: “I realised that Feki was 10 metres away from the corner post. I have to get myself to that corner post.

“My intention is to make a ball and all tackle. I actually practise this sort of stuff at training. I feel that the contact made was unavoidable once he veered. I’ve got a split second. A nanosecond.

“I’m protecting myself with the left side of my body. I felt my jaw flush up against his right shoulder. His eyes go from the try line to me. He puts me in a vulnerable situation. He’s stepped off his left foot … and it’s created the collision two metres before I anticipated it happening. I’ve been clocked at training doing 33km/h. If I wasn’t going that fast, I was close. The whole time, my intention was to make a tackle. I see Feki raise his elbow at my head level.”

Slater was awkward when NRL counsel Anthony Lo Surdo said, “What you intended to do, and what you in fact did, were two very different things.”

Slater was momentarily speechless before he replied sheepishly, “Well, yeah.”

“You can’t shoot Bambi,” Storm CEO Dave Donaghy had said in the build-up to the polarising case and in the end, they didn’t.

He hopped off his private jet yesterday afternoon, adjusted his immaculate suit and tie, ran a comb through his hair and made his way to the NRL’s Moore Park headquarters. Walking into his judiciary hearing at 5.56pm with his head bowed, accompanied by the stern-faced Storm coach Craig Bellamy, he was riddled with nerves.

At 8.46pm, he strode away with a sigh of relief that had the strength of a southerly buster.

What a lonely old joint this would have been for Slater’s career to be killed off. The case had polarised the rugby league community and made everyone in the room last night feel sick to the pits of their stomachs. The longer it went, the more gut-wrenching it felt.

To watch Slater play has been a joy. To witness him in one more grand final will be a treat. The panel was instructed to ignore the fact it was a grand final. The magnitude of the match was described as “insignificant” by judiciary chairman Geoff Bellew. It did not seem insignificant to Slater.

He appeared forlorn and stared at the table. His brow was furrowed. He was confused by the legal mumbo jumbo.

He squirmed in his seat. At certain moments he looked positively sad. Hard men of the sport had said they would be embarrassed if Slater was booted out of the grand final for the incident. He sat through a torturous wait of nearly an hour for the panellists to reach their decision … and then got his reprieve instead of the bullet.