Des: Slater not that type of player

Ally ... Dogs coach Des Hasler defends Billy Slater following his kick on David Klemmer. Source: Stuart Walmsley / News Limited

Bulldogs coach Des Hasler has defended Billy Slater following the Storm fullback's boot connecting with the face of teenage prop David Klemmer.

4 Tries 3
Ryan Hinchcliffe 21'	Sam Perrett 43'
Mahe Fonua 36'	Krisnan Inu 71'
Matthew Duffie 63'	Kris Keating 75'
Lagi Setu 66'
3 Conversions 3
Cameron Smith 23'	Krisnan Inu 44'
Cameron Smith 65'	Krisnan Inu 72'
Cameron Smith 67'	Krisnan Inu 76'

Slater's boot came into contact with Klemmer's face while he went up for the high ball in the Storm's win over Canterbury-Bankstown on Thursday night.

Slater was initially placed on report by referee Ben Cummins but was cleared of any wrongdoing on Friday morning, allowing him to line up in the Storm's round four match against the Broncos.

Hasler leapt to the defence of Slater after the match, insisting the custodian is "not that sort of player".

"It wasn’t intentional, it was probably just dangerous play," Hasler said.

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy and captain Cameron Smith were bewildered by the call.

"What's Billy supposed to do with his foot ... chop it off?", said Bellamy.

"If he's catching a kick and he's gone up off the ground, he's not to be touched.

"If you touch him in the air, you're going to get penalised."

Bellamy said it was tough call that changed the game.

Slater said after the match he only had eyes for the ball.

"I just go up for the footy and try to protect myself as best I can," he said.

"What they (officials) saw in it, I'm not too sure."

The Bulldogs scored through Sam Perrett in the ensuing set.

Smith said he'd seen the Test custodian take the ball in the same way since he started his career.

"Billy's been going up for high balls like that for as long as I can remember, he works on that every week at training," Smith said.

"I was quite mystified by that. 

"It was unintentional by Bill.

"David (Klemmer) hit Bill in the air so I don't know what else Bill is supposed to do there." 

The Storm repeated their 2012 grand final performance with a 22-18 victory at AAMI Park, denying a thrilling late charge by the Bulldogs.

The home side took a halftime 10-0 lead but their second half couldn't have started any worse.

Slater leapt high to take a bomb and his boots made contact with the face of the Bulldogs forward.

The video referee said Slater had "kicked him'' with referee Ben Cummins putting the Test custodian on report for dangerous play.

Cameron Smith protested that Klemmer had attempted to tackle Slater in the air but Cummins told the skipper that Slater kicked the Bulldog "before anything else happened".

Slater was only available for this match after making an early guilty plea to a dangerous contact charge after he knocked out Antonio Winterstein early in last round's win over the Cowboys.

The rattled Storm a minute later conceded a try after Bulldogs five-eighth Josh Reynolds put a cross-field kick into the hands of winger Sam Perrett to touch down.

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A Cooper Cronk try was then disallowed because of obstruction by Bryan Norrie and it looked like the Bulldogs were going to cause a boil-over.

But Melbourne regrouped and scored two tries within three minutes to look to have the match in their keeping.

Winger Matt Duffie showed his aerial credentials with a special leap to take a Cronk bomb before planting the ball in the 63rd minute and he was quickly followed by young forward Lagi Setu, who burrowed across the line.

Smith added the extras and the scoreline was out to 22-6.

However the Bulldogs showed some fight to strike back with two tries of their own to restore some respectability to the scoreline.

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