Billy Slater (b. 1983), rugby league footballer, has played for Melbourne Storm since the beginning of his career in 2003. Having played eleven years’ football in Innisfail, Far North Queensland, Slater left school at the age of sixteen to work for racehorse trainer Gai Waterhouse in Sydney. About six months later, in 2001, he travelled to Brisbane to trial with the Northern Suburbs Devils, a ‘feeder club’ for the Storm. After two seasons, he was offered a game in Melbourne. Since then, he has set the club record for most ever tries and the NRL record for most ever tries by a fullback. He has played on the victorious side in three grand finals, and has won the Clive Churchill Medal and the Dally M Medal. Playing for the Australian side, he was the 2008 international top try-scorer, player of the tournament and recipient of the Golden Boot Award for world player of the year. In 2009 and 2010 he was the victor in the television game show Australia’s Greatest Athlete. Said to have the most engaging smile of any player in the NRL, in recent years Slater has married Nicole Rose, an artist whom he met as a teenager at pony club; and starred in a commercial for Adidas sports shoes filmed in Barcelona.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2012
© Julian Kingma
Accession number: 2012.205
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