Billy Slater addresses Kalyn Ponga's CONTROVERSIAL send off: Origin Presser | NRL on Nine

Is it really the way you serve Sendhoff?Sendhoff, I guess there was an argument to him being a seeded midfielder.

I'm heartbroken for them, the effort that they put in.They played with so much heart in that last 23 minutes and New South Wales did a great job.They had to chase the points down and they got them right at the death, but I'm super proud of our footy team.It was a tough night and a tough feeling, but I thought they played with plenty of spirit.I thought he was great.I thought he was really good.

What was the communication from Ashley with the send -off?It sounded like there was a bit of confusion between him and the bunker as to whether it would be a senior or a send -off.

We have to make a split decision and we got on with it and we fought our best and fortunately it wasn't enough tonight.He was unreal for us.I think he had a handful of a couple of try assists, you know, putting Flick away.Nice little kick for Bobby.So, yeah, Semmy was good in her first half and unfortunately probably just didn't help him and probably, you know, just try to protect our lead instead of, you know, playing a bit of footy.When you have 12 men, it kind of takes a bit of gas out of you, you know, and New South Wales shift the ball a fair bit.

And unfortunately, a couple of times, Cattoni was one -on -one with Capes and, you know, He's not usually a centre, you know.So, yeah, at the end of the day, that's footy.And we've shuffled our team, and I thought our boys were brave tonight.Went down to the wire, a minute 30 left, and Tedesco ended up doing something freaky.So it could have been a knock -on.We could have, you know, grinded our game out and got the win.

So, unfortunately, that wasn't our game tonight, but like we've spoken about, we're beaten tonight, but we haven't lost yet.

You've asked me how I saw it.I haven't got a problem with it.It's fine.I'm not going to make any noise about it.It is what it is.It's a game of footy.

You've got to make decisions out there.They're the breaks.Like I said, I was pretty proud of the footy team tonight.Yeah, I thought he was great.The longer the week went on, the more I felt really confident that he'd play like that.He's a clever little player.

He's tough.He dives into all the team things, but then he brings his game.He unlocks players.We saw that tonight.Yeah, looking forward to him getting some more opportunities and playing some more footy at this level.It's possible.

It's happened in the last two years, hasn't it, from both sides?But at the end of the day, this is a new year.We've got to take some positives out of what we did tonight, and there was a lot.So we'll go back and review that.The biggest thing is picking ourselves up off the canvas and the feeling that we have at the moment.It's natural to feel heartbroken and disappointed, but we won't be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

So is he still pretty fresh?Would you think he'll make any changes again soon?

Not at this stage, no.

Bill, it's the first origin with the six -man bench.Yeah.

Did your interchange go as planned?Or was it just...

Well, we had someone sent off, so that's far from as planned.We had to shift a back rower out into the centres and we had to rotate our middle quite heavily, so when things like that happen in the game, it's far from planned, yeah.Yeah, the heart and spirit that they fought with.23 minutes in a state of origin game.With 12 men they they fought hard and you could see that, you know, they were they were just holding on in stages and Like camp said like one moment at the end of the game.It could be a different story, but but it's not This is the the journey we've been put on.

These are the cards we've been dealt and we'll be playing that hand.So Yes, like I'm really proud.I'm sure all Queenslanders are proud of their footy team right now we went down on the scoreboard, but I think Queensland will be proud of their side.I've just said it.This is the journey we've been put on.It's going to hurt.

All of Queenslanders will hurt but this is the journey we've been put on and we'll pick ourselves up off the canvas.

To be fair, I was born in Rockhampton but I live in Melbourne now, yeah, cramping up.

Oh, we had the opportunity like that we did in Perth last year.We've been pumped a fair few times in Perth and never had a great record.So we spoke about this last time after Game 1.I think we're a lot more developed in our game than we were last year in Game 1.So, yeah, we can take some steps forward in that.But at the end of the day, we've got to make sure we're not throwing the toys out of the court.

And we've got to knuckle down and bite on the mouth guard next week.I'm sorry, next game in Melbourne, because they're going to get better.and we need to get better.Always that first game is always blowing the cobwebs out.They're going to improve their game and we need to do that if we want to be making it 1 -1 and go on to the side and be busy.

Do you look at that 10 on course?

I don't know if we want to win the game comfortably.I guess we had the game in the balance.We were definitely in front.It took a minute 30 for them to score a freaky try from Teddy with 12 men, so it just shows the heart that we've got in our team and our defence mindset at the moment.Look, we can get better in attack for sure, When those things happen in games, you just got to find a way and we found a way until about the last minute.We just probably switched off that last minute and it hurt.

So yeah, we're all hurting at the moment, but we need to improve if we want to get any better and making sure it's a side I'm busy.I've got a lot of belief in this team, a lot of belief in Billy and our coaching staff and in this group.So there's nothing more with that.We got better.by a better team tonight, but they just played a little bit better in that last 20 minutes.We were probably the best team for the first 60, so it's just one of those things.

We've just got to find a way, and unfortunately, we couldn't do that tonight.We can find a way in Melbourne, but we've just got to make sure we build our game and get our game on, and if we can do that, it'll give us every chance to win.

A lot of ifs.If that happened, there's a lot of ifs at the moment.put one foot in front of the other.We'll pick ourselves up tonight.We had five guys or four guys debut for Queensland tonight.They didn't get the feeling that they wanted in the dressing room.

So hopefully we can give them that in the future.