Slater, the 279-game Melbourne Storm veteran, made his long-awaited return to first grade at AAMI Park against the Brisbane Broncos in the opening game of round three. He’d played just eight games across the 2015-16 campaigns due to crippling injuries, and hadn’t played since round one of last season after a shoulder injury ended his year before it had really began.

Jack, a Balmain Tigers legend and sensational fullback himself in his day, told Inside Sport it was important for the league world to be patient with the 2009 Dally M Player of the year as far as his return from injury is concerned. “It’s hard enough when you’ve had a month or a couple of months out with an injury, let alone going 12 months without playing,” Jack said.

“I reckon it’s going to take him a couple of months before he starts to find his feet properly. I hope he finds it earlier than that. We could still probably expect some glimpses at least from the great Billy Slater who we all love to watch, but I wouldn’t expect him to be, at this early stage, up where he was just yet. I just hope he can perform at the level he’s happy with.”

Slater’s lethal attacking style is celebrated by many across the game, but Jack says it’s his work off the ball that makes the Innisfail product the superstar he is. “Everyone talks about his attack, which no doubt is fantastic,” says Jack, who played 248 games in the NSWRL between 1981 and 1995.

“But I think he’s an excellent defender. I don’t think that side of his game gets enough credit. He’s a great reader of play, a fearless tackler; I really admire that. Lots of people can score tries, but I admire how he defends his goal line whole-heartedly; he puts his body on the line to stop tries. He doesn’t have to, but he does. Plus, he’s very good in the air. His overall game really is fantastic.”

For the last seven years Jack has worked for a commercial builder, S.R Flooring in Dural. He’s an estimator/project manager on assignments involving hospitals and schools or “anyone who needs carpet or vinyl, etc.” Before his current career, Jack, how 56, spent ten years in real estate.

Aggressive, fast and very safe under the high ball, Jack was an electrifying, snowy-haired, uncompromising fullback. There’s a lot of Slater in Garry Jack, a theory Inside Sport offers to “Jimmy”.

“I can see it in how he returns the ball; I used to just get the ball and run over people or through them or around them, whatever was the quickest way to get there,” says Jack, a 17-time State of Origin player for NSW. “You get the ball as quick as you can and then you just launch back without fear of what’s going to happen to yourself. You might have six guys in front of you who want to shut you down: your job is to beat them and make as many yards as you can.

“I can see similarities in the way he plays … he’s probably just a little bit quicker than I was. I was deceptively quick, but he has that blistering speed. You can’t buy that pace and that’s his biggest asset.

“I think as he’s got older, his talk is really good. He’s a very good organiser in defence. You probably don’t hear much about that on the television, but at the game you can pick it up.

“Everyone respects him for what he’s done.”