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Twelve-minute masterstroke that cemented Slater’s coaching genius
The genius of Billy Slater was on full-display last week in State of Origin and now the Queensland coach has explained how one crucial decision came to fruition.
Slater has cemented himself as one of the game’s most astute coaches in recent years, despite never having led an NRL side before taking over the Maroons.
Billy Slater has become an outstanding coach. Getty Images
The champion fullback has already lifted the Origin shield three times as a coach in four series and is closing in on making it four from five.
However, the 2026 campaign hasn’t come without moments of adversity, from losing Tom Dearden due to injury and bringing Sam Walker in at halfback, before star forward Patrick Carrigan went down in between games one and two.
In last Wednesday night’s clash at the MCG, a mid-game spanner in the works threatened to derail the Maroons, before a selection masterclass saved the day.
With five-eighth Cameron Munster forced off for a HIA, most saw the only logical replacement on Queensland’s six-man bench being Reece Walsh.
Instead, the Maroons coach opted to insert tough forward utility Max Plath into the playmaking role with 12 minutes to play until half time.
Munster returned for the second half and Slater avoided wasting a substitute, with the bold move applauded by experts and fans alike.
The coach has now explained what went into the Plath decision and the two-hour conversation with assistant coach Johnathan Thurston that cemented it.
“It probably started throughout the week - I was talking to Ben Te’o about Max Plath and he mentioned he played in the halves as a young fella growing up,” he said on Nine’s The Billy Slater Podcast.
“I actually called Johnathan Thurston the day of the game in the afternoon. He came up to my room and we sat down for a good couple of hours and we went over all our contingencies again and this was one we spoke about.
“It just happened to come to fruition and we had to make that play. Reece was an option, but if we injected Reece at that time and then come off at half time ... that would have reduced us to using all our four interchanges.
“We talk about soft contingencies and hard contingencies and obviously we had Reece there as the back-up for our halves on the bench, but given the fact that it was 12 minutes before half-time and we were pretty confident that Cameron Munster was gonna come back, we wanted to give that a bit of an opportunity.
“If you inject that extra player from the bench, someone else misses out or you might leave yourself a bit short later. We wanted to go with a soft contingency.”
Plath ended up reverting back to a middle-forward role when Munster returned to the field, while Walsh never went on despite an incredible moment on the headset with Slater that got the Melbourne crowd rocking with anticipation.
Max Plath has been strong in his first two Origin matches. Getty
The extreme preparation shown by Slater and his coaching staff paid off on the biggest stage, but the Storm legend also admitted he had to weigh up the risk and reward of letting Plath in on the contingency plan before kick off.
“He’s a wonderful player Max Plath - he’s got great movements, he’s a good defender and he never lets anyone down when he’s out on the field,” Slater said.
“We had great confidence in him and we knew we would lose a bit with our attack, but we were willing to sacrifice and make sure our priority was our defence.
“You put the time and thought in and it doesn’t always go your way - but if you do put the time in, it makes those decisions a little bit more clear and fluent.
“Basically, we only locked that contingency in on the afternoon of the game. I actually got to the game, we were in the sheds and we were walking around and I was actually contemplating whether I’d bring it up with Max or not.
“You want to try and give the players the best opportunity to be in the best headspace possible and floating something like this, that may never happen, to someone that is playing their second State of Origin, there’s a risk involved in that.
“I did think about that, but I also know the maturity of Max Plath and the professional that he is and I actually thought I needed to have a conversation.
“It was the only thing that I spoke to Max about before the game and he was like ‘yep no worries, I can do that if needed’ and then we moved on.
“Surely enough, it happened and I was glad I had that conversation.”
