Don’t ban Billy Slater for the grand final — the punishment would not fit the crime
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In the case of the NRL v Billy Slater, I can be quickly and quite rightly dismissed as an unreliable witness.
I ghost-wrote Slater's autobiography which was released last year, and which will be re-released in paperback soon when his brilliant career comes to its conclusion — if it has not already.
During this process I've gotten to know Slater a bit and to like him and his very tight-knit family a lot.
So when I suggest the right arm that Slater attempted to wrap around Cronulla winger Sosaia Feki as he knocked him over the sideline is the evidence that could allow him to play in Sunday's grand final, I fully expect to be howled down.
Yes, of course I would write that!
But what I can say without fear of contradiction is that if Slater is suspended for an action that might have breached the letter of the law but possibly not its spirit, the punishment will not fit the crime.
Not because this law is necessarily an ass. But because the heartbreak of missing a grand final — let alone one that was to have been Slater's final game — is so brutally profound.
I can tell you this because I spent time with Slater in September 2016 as he nursed his injured shoulder and watched the Storm progress to a grand final he knew he wouldn't play.
He was at least well prepared for that heartache. By September, Slater had taken a game-day role in the coach's box and was an occasional advisor to replacement full-back Cameron Munster.
But you only had to see Slater's distant expression as the game grew closer, to watch him step out of the shadows and pose for the team photo knowing he would not run out on Sunday, to feel his pain.
This is not to argue that the heavy toll of missing a grand final appearance should be taken into account by the judiciary. It is merely to state the enormous impact missing these games has on those who find themselves on the sidelines.
Bob Murphy GF honour failed to fill gap
Coincidentally also in 2016 a neighbourhood friend by the name of Bob Murphy endured a similar, perhaps even more tortuous fate than Slater, when he missed out on the Western Bulldogs' drought-breaking AFL premiership.
Slater has at least played in two winning grand final teams — four if you include the two expunged from the record books. Murphy missed what he knew would be one of his game's rarest moments.
Famously, Murphy's misfortune was eased somewhat by the wonderful gesture of his coach Luke Beveridge who called him onto the victory dais and presented the absent skipper with his winner's medal.
Murphy is the most eloquent and gracious of athletes and in subsequent years he has found a way to reconcile his fate with those who insist on trying to empathise — or worse I suspect, tell him "you were still part of it".
But players are players and, as sincere as Murphy is in his sentiment that the premiership was for every Bulldog who cheered and marched to the Footscray Town Hall, there will always be a little spot deep down that is never filled.
Yes, yes. In both the case of Slater and Murphy in 2016 it was a matter of injury and not suspension that deprived them of the moment they craved.
Slater's fate was of his making. He decided to stop Feki scoring by bumping him when he didn't have the time to tackle around the legs.
You must also be wary of hypocrisy. Many, me included, have raised concerns about the impact of serious concussions and the need for stricter policing of rules to protect the long-term welfare of players. So it is dangerous to let the heart rule (concern for) the head.
The Storm will argue the shoulder charge rule was not intended for a case such as this where Slater swooped from the side, but was instead designed to counter the potential consequences of full-on frontal contact.
Slater holds no grudges — don't hold past against him
Football hearts can be hard. Some have no sympathy for Slater because he has occasionally led with his feet under a high ball.
Slater's response — if not quite in these words — is that where others saw a brilliant, breathtaking eventually game-changing full-back, opposition coaches saw a massive threat.
Slater had not completed the famous chip-and-charge try for Queensland before his relatively small frame had a big target on it. Inevitably he has defended himself how he could.
It is also worth remembering Slater has been almost unnaturally gracious about the incidents in which he was the victim.
I told him recently a number of friends who read his book were surprised how forgiving he was of Canterbury's James Graham who bit his ear during the 2012 grand final.
Slater just laughed and said: "The poor bloke's played in seven losing grand finals."
In Slater's mind there was no point holding a grudge. The game had a way of sorting things out.
So before you consider Slater's fate in cold legalese, or even feel jubilant he will miss out, try to put yourself in his boots.
Consider Slater's character, courage and his contribution to the game, and the pity it would be if his career ends in the coach's box instead of on the playing field.
Even if your view is far less clouded them mine, surely it is hard not to think he would be serving a jail sentence for a speeding ticket.
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