Our Billy's Riding High

Emma Greenwood reports - Cairns Post - May 23, 2007

BILLY Slater may not have made the Queensland team for tonight’s State of Origin opener but things couldn’t be better for the Innisfail-born flyer.

The electrifying fullback is in top form for the Melbourne Storm and off-the-field he and girlfriend Nicole Rose a childhood friend from his pony club days are enjoying life together in the relative anonymity of the Victorian capital.

We enjoy the same sort of things, he tells the latest edition of cairns eye magazine, free inside today.

While he admits to some disappointment at not wearing the Maroon colours at Suncorp Stadium tonight, he is determined to return to the Queensland line-up.

All I can control is how I play now until the second game, he says.

He may have been snubbed by the State of Origin selectors, but Billy Slater remains one of the game's favourites.

Billy Slater is one of the biggest names in rugby league.

The Melbourne Storm fullback is one of the most electrifying players in the National Rugby League, has played five games for Queensland and owns one of the all-time great State of Origin tries.

He caused near pandemonium in his home town of Innisfail when a parade was held in his honour in 2004 after he scored "that try" to hand the Maroons an Origin win, and his face is recognised from Cape York to country New South Wales.

But in Victoria, where AFL is king, there is still an opportunity for him to lead a relatively conventional life.

And Billy, who lives in Richmond with girlfriend Nicole Rose and their dog Puggles, revels in the inconspicuousness of it all.

"From the club's perspective, they want its to be out there and receive as much attention as possible but as a player, you love that anonymity," Billy says.

Like hundreds of other kids growing up in the Far North, Billy's aspiration was to become a professional rugby league player.

That would mean playing in Sydney or Brisbane or perhaps even Townsville - whose North Queensland Cowboys were admitted to the competition when Billy was still in primary school running around with the Innisfail Brothers juniors.

But given the Storm were not admitted to the NRL until Billy was almost 15. Melbourne was never in his frame of reference.

Now that he is there though, he can find few faults with the place.

"Growing up in North Queensland, I was a big Broncos, and in later days, Cowboys fan," he says.

"To think I'm down here in Victoria, 3000km away from home, is a little hit weird. But I've grown to love Melbourne.'"

His route there was somewhat circuitous. Having left school after Year 11 - he managed to convince his parents he could leave if he gained a full-time job - he headed to Sydney to ride trackwork for leading trainer Gai Waterhouse.

Despite his love of horses and riding, becoming a jockey was never an option for Billy who was always going to be too big. Eventually, he decided to move home.

"I think I got a bit homesick, I was only 16," he says.

"I was living at the stables. I just wanted to get back home and play footy."

A last-minute trial with Brisbane club Norths was arranged in 2001 and after a frantic drive from Innisfail to arrive in time. he was named in the Devils' Colts side. The rest, as they say. is history.

Billy quickly moved through the ranks at Norths - a feeder club for the Storm - and just two years later he arrived in the NRL, making his debut against Cronulla in the opening round of the 2003 season.

He admits there are moments when he wonders what would have happened had he not made the journey.

"If I didn't go down there, who knows where 1 could be. If you want something, you've got to go get it," he says.

"I didn't know if I was going to play first grade football, but it was a dream of mine.

"I had to go get it rather than them come and get me." There are a lot of words used to describe Billy Slater the footballer. Dynamic, electrifying, even unpredictable, are among the most common used to sum him up.

Thuggish was never one of them - until last year.

Billy was riding high as one of the most popular and recognisable players in the game.

But what he describes as "a little brain explosion when he kicked out at Wests Tigers player John Skandalis earned him a seven-week suspension.

One sideline stint was bad enough, but more was to come, with Slater suspended three times last season for a total of 1 I games.

"I've never experienced anything like that playing," Billy says. "It was pretty tough at the time. No one likes to be called a dirty player.

"I'd been playing three-and-a-half years before that and had done nothing wrong. It definitely isn't my game."

If those were his darkest days, there was a shining light in his life there to help - his girlfriend Nicole.

Nicole moved to Melbourne at the end of 2005 to live with Billy, a childhood friend from pony club days.

The pair had reunited early that year when the Storm played a trial match in Cairns, Nicole's home city.

An emerging artist, who Billy remembers best as a tomboy in her pony club days, Nicole did not know much about Billy's football career, something that suited him.

"1 knew Nic before I started playing footy and all that sort of stuff," he says.

Her presence in Melbourne is clearly important to him and having her support last year was vital.

"You can get away from footy when you've got someone else there. We do stuff outside of footy. We enjoy the same sort of things.

"It's pretty important to have her down here for me."

The couple have been through some tough times in the past year. Billy's first suspension came on the back of Cyclone Larry, which devastated his home town, and Nicole's father died suddenly late last year.

Billy says the Storm stood by him without question during this time, though, and the club's show of faith was something he wanted to repay.

"I don't want to go anywhere else," he says. "The club has been great to me - I don't intend to go anywhere else.

"Melbourne's where I call home at the moment - but I call North Queensland home too."

And North Queenslanders are only too proud to recognise Billy as one of their own, sending out a storm of protest over him not being selected for the first State of Origin.

Billy says while he is "a little disappointed" at the selection snub, his main focus now is to play well for the Melbourne Storm. "All I can control is how I play now until the second (Origin) game," he says.

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