Slater: I’ll worry about future later
MELBOURNE Storm champion Billy Slater has shelved retirement thoughts to focus solely on doing his bit to keep the club’s title dream alive.
Reigning premiers Storm will host Cronulla on Friday night at AAMI Park in search of a third consecutive grand final appearance. But Slater, who announced his retirement last month, hasn’t dwelt on the fact his football mortality could be only 80 minutes away after 16 decorated seasons.
“It’s really weird,” Slater said ahead of Friday night’s cut-throat preliminary final.
“It’s snuck up on me. I haven’t really thought about it.
“My full focus and energy is going into playing well. That’s all I want to do.
“I understand the situation that I’m in, but it doesn’t feel like that situation.
“It doesn’t feel like I’m approaching my last ever game … hopefully it’s not.”
Slater helped the Storm move into a 10th preliminary final in 13 years with another vintage performance last Friday week in the club’s comefrom-behind one-point win over South Sydney.
He set up the first of two Suliasi Vunivalu tries with a dummy and double-handed overhead pass to release the Fijian excitement machine in space deep in the red zone.