Judicial case takes emotional toll on Slater
Melbourne are giving Billy Slater time to recover from the emotional toll of fighting his case at the NRL judiciary, which threatened to rule him out of Sunday’s grand final in Sydney.
Slater overturned a shouldercharge citing on Tuesday night, allowing him to play against the Sydney Roosters in his career swansong.
Storm football manager Frank Ponissi said Slater was emotionally exhausted but that the successful hearing had brought a buzz to the club.
The Melbourne fullback was put on light duties at training yesterday before the team flew to Sydney, with plans for him to build up his workload leading into the ANZ Stadium showdown.
‘‘There’s no doubt he’s emotionally fatigued,’’ Ponissi said. ‘‘He’s put a lot of work in.
‘‘Coming home he was happy but just exhausted.’’
Ponissi said Slater’s judiciary success had given the Storm a boost as they strive to become the first club in the NRL era to claim back-to-back titles.
He said the value that the test custodian brought to the side in such a high-stakes match game couldn’t be under-estimated.
‘‘We all saw in the preliminary final how important he is,’’ Ponissi said.
‘‘He’s a vital part of our team for lots of reasons.
‘‘We would have had a wonderful replacement in Jahrome Hughes, but there’s only one Billy Slater and the way he’s playing at the moment, especially in big games, you can’t buy that sort of experience.’’
‘‘He was happy but just exhausted.’’