Slater’s Maroons record fit for a king

HE is affectionately known as Billy the Kid. Tonight, he will become Billy the King.

Retiring Billy Slater will rubberstamp his Origin greatness when he equals Maroons icon Wally Lewis with his 31st and final match for Queensland in Game 3 tonight at Suncorp Stadium.

It is a measure of Slater’s ability and longevity that he is now in the same Origin stratosphere as Lewis — The Emperor of Lang Park — as the champion fullback prepares to say farewell to Queensland fans with one more moment of magic.

The statistical parallels between Slater and Lewis are eerily dominant. The King won 19 of 31 Origin matches for a 61 per cent success rate. Slater has 18 wins and can match Lewis with his 19th triumph by leading Queensland to victory in his Origin captaincy debut tonight.

Just one of 10 players to have qualified for Queensland’s elite 30-game Statesman’s Club, Slater admits the desire to join the iconic group kept him motivated during his darkest days two years ago when he feared he would not recover from shoulder surgery.

“That [becoming an Origin Statesman] was pretty important to me,” Slater said on the eve of his finale in Origin III tonight.

“There’s not too many players who get to play 30 Origins. That’s 10 years straight without missing a game, it is hard to do that at NRL level, let alone Origin level.

“I am very proud of that. I was a young fella when Wally was playing Origin, he’s not ‘The King’ for no reason. To play the same amount of games as him is special. I feel excited.”

While he is in awe of Lewis’s achievements, Slater will tonight look to channel the magic of his boyhood hero, Queensland halfback legend Allan Langer.

Growing up in the north Queensland town of Innisfail, Slater found hope in “Alfie”, the blondhaired, pint-sized 165cm Origin dynamo who was proof every little kid could dream big.