BILLY SLATER last night played as if there was a spot up for grabs in the Centenary Test side.

Luckily for him there is. Luckily for Australian coach Ricky Stuart he has a superstar with pace, acceleration and positional nous ready for the custodian spot. It seemed immaterial which opponent Slater would sidestep last night, for barely a rival hand was placed upon him.

That it was a hapless Manly team, still smarting from its grand final loss last year, only made the Slater show all the more potent for the 13,632- strong crowd at Olympic Park. Melbourne won 26-4, spearheaded by Slater, who ducked and weaved his way across the try-line twice - the first only 13 minutes into the match.

It seems bizarre that Slater, who has always been so spectacular , has still not got a green-and-gold jersey in the cupboard. Injuries and suspensions have played a part in that.

While he has played five games for Queensland, last night's performance, in which he ran around players, linked regularly with the outside-backs and seemed 10 metres faster than anyone else on the paddock, should pencil him in ahead of the incumbent Brett Stewart for the prized Centenary Test jersey.

Stewart really didn't do anything wrong in their head-to-head clash and he was strong in defence, but he seemed lacklustre compared with the flashy Slater.

The 22-year-old sidestepped to the first try and then backed up for his second in the 29th minute when he scored from a standing start, so quick off the mark that he was too slick for teammate Cameron Smith, whom he had to dart behind to score near the corner post.

Slater's awareness was apparent 15 minutes into the second half, when he stepped in to halt a raid by Steve Bell. He realised immediately that Bell had not grounded the ball and he quickly dived underneath to prevent a try that might have spurred Manly back into the match.

Before the game, Melbourne had put a photo of Slater on its website, but one that was not very flattering. He was being dumped on his head during the grand final, with the provocative line underneath "and Manly are complaining about tackles".

Of course, the picture was a direct sideswipe at the criticism the Storm have been receiving for their chicken wing, grapple, slapple, stickle and tickle tackles, most of them directed by wrestling coach John Donahue, but last night's match was bereft of any peculiar tackling techniques.

Indeed, the speed of the play-the-ball by both sides - in stark contrast to the trend to slow the play by way of upright dance-style tackling - was a revelation.

Referee Tony Archer was quick with the whistle on anything that looked suspect: even a routine back-slam of Slater by Manly enforcers Jamie Lyon and Anthony Watmough was penalised.

However, the slow motion replays indicated that Archer may have been concerned about Watmough going slightly high, or maybe it was the position of Lyon's elbow.

The only ugly incident happened just before half-time when Manly's Bell seemed to get a finger in the eye of Anthony Quinn, who later reported that he had lost a contact lens.