State of Origin 2025: Billy Slater fires back at Aaron Woods over ‘grub’ insult

Maroons coach Billy Slater has unloaded on former Blues prop Aaron Woods after the ex-footballer turned media personality labelled him a “grub.”

During the marquee media event in Perth, a day out from the second State of Origin match at Optus Stadium tomorrow night, Slater did not hold back when asked about the comments Woods made last week.

Woods, who played 14 Origins for NSW from 2013 to 2017, lobbed the insult at Slater over his axing of Daly Cherry-Evans and a seven-match suspension Slater served for kicking Wests Tigers prop John Skandalis in the head in 2006 — a suspension that denied Slater a spot in that year’s opening Origin match.

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“I want to see the real Billy Slater come out — the grub that we know of. This is a bloke who kicked John Skandalis in the head and got a six-week suspension. Everyone wants to go, ‘Oh, he’s such a nice bloke,’” Woods said on his Triple M breakfast show.

Slater returned fire on Tuesday, saying Woods did not deserve to be a media pundit.

“When you degrade someone personally in a derogatory manner, you probably don’t deserve one of those privileged positions that you’re all in — that we’re all in,” said Slater, who also works as a Channel 9 commentator.

“You might not know what people are going through. And although I might be able to handle it, the next person mightn’t be. Maybe our last coach (Paul Green) didn’t.

“I believe the character of a person is judged more on what they say about people and how they treat everyone than what an individual says to create attention.

“When you hold a position in the media and in our game, I feel that’s a privilege — and with that privilege comes a responsibility. I sit in that position. When you amplify your voice to millions of people, you’re not talking to your mates in the pub.”

Green, who coached Queensland in the 2021 series loss, took his own life in 2022.

A post-mortem found the North Queensland premiership-winning coach had been living with a “severe” and undiagnosed case of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

The normally reserved Queensland icon revealed he had run into Woods before announcing his game two squad.

“Now, I know Aaron Woods. I actually ran into him about three or four weeks ago at a footy game, and he didn’t voice that opinion. He actually brought his son over to introduce him to me,” Slater said.

“And I get the attention in our game. I get that. Our game creates attention. But there’s a responsibility with that attention.”

Slater has made a number of bold calls ahead of Wednesday night, headlined by the axing of captain Cherry-Evans and Tom Dearden’s move to the No.7 jersey.

Before a question was even asked, a member of the crowd yelled out “you’re under pressure Billy”.

“What is pressure? To me, the opposite of pressure is comfort,” Slater said.

“So you’re either comfortable or you’re in a pressure situation. And I think you earn that opportunity, whether it’s a player or a coach.

“To be in this environment, you’ve earned that pressure. Because it means so much to the people of our states, it means so much to the people involved in the game.

“But of course there’s pressure. There was pressure in grand finals. There was pressure in state of origin games and there still is.

“And the day there’s no pressure, I’ll be a bit worried.”

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