CAPTAIN SLATER

Slater to lead Queensland in his final Origin appearance

INNISFAIL’S Billy Slater is Queensland’s captain next Wednesday night, but not their motivation.

Next Wednesday will be the 31st and last time Slater dons the Maroons jersey, after declaring ahead of the series that his time was done in representative football.

The 35-year-old was yesterday confirmed as skipper for Game Three, replacing the injured Greg Inglis and becoming the 14th Maroons skipper.

Slater’s father, Ron, told the Cairns Post, “31 is a good number to finish on”.

“He’ll go all right – he’ll play his own game.

“He was pretty chuffed.”

Slater Snr said he didn’t expect a lot to change in his son’s performance.

“He’ll play like a captain, like he does every game. He won’t do anything different,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter where he is – he played well (in Game Two) whenever he had the ball in his hands. Everybody gets nervous, if you’re not nervous you’re no good.

“I speak to him before the match on the day. I don’t have to tell him anything, I might put a few hints out there ... but he knows what to do.”

Maroons coach Kevin Walters said the team would not be going into the match with a focus on winning it for Slater.

“There’s a bigger picture,” he said. “It’s about doing it for Queensland.

“Sending Billy out on a win would be a real positive … but we need to get better. Looking forward to next year too we need to try to get a win up in this year’s series to kick us off.”

Slater has only been captain once before in his professional career, when he led the Storm in Round 11 while Cameron Smith was suspended.

Walters said Slater’s excitement at being told he was Queensland captain was evident and – while the team are not playing to win the game for Slater – he said they do owe him their very best effort.

“It’s his last Origin and for him to lead them out on to Suncorp … he was obviously very excited,” Walters said.

“Billy’s a winner. He’s won so many times at this level and it’s a really special moment for Billy captaining his state and at Suncorp Stadium as well in his last game for Queensland.

“The other 16 players in this team owe Billy Slater a sendoff that’s just right.

“You don’t always get what you want but certainly in Billy’s case we have plenty to play for in that regard.”