[13] Slater's club form helped his team finish 6th on the ladder, defeating the Brisbane Broncos 31–14 at Suncorp Stadium in the first game of the finals before succumbing to eventual premiers the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 43–18 at SFS.

Melbourne once again finished 6th in the league and defeated the Brisbane Broncos 24–18 at Suncorp Stadium in the first game of the finals before missing the Storms 24–16 season ending loss succumbing to an in-form North Queensland Cowboys team at SFS.

Slater made his NRL comeback in Round 18 playing his preferred fullback position when the Storm defeated the Brisbane Broncos 10–4 at Olympic Park.

[28] Slater was part of the Melbourne Storm 2007 NRL Grand Final winning team at Fullback, defeating the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 34–8, which was later stripped from them for cheating the salary cap.

Slater's form was rewarded when he was selected at fullback for the Australian national team in the Centenary Test against New Zealand, displacing the incumbent Brett Stewart.

With just 10 minutes to go, Johnathan Thurston broke the New South Wales line, drawing in the fullback before passing the ball to Slater who ran the remaining 30 metres to score the match-winning try and a 16–10 victory.

[37][38] In September 2008; Slater narrowly missed out on the Dally M Medal, Player of the Year, finishing 2 points behind the Sea Eagles Matt Orford.

Days after playing in the 2008 NRL Grand Final 40–0 defeat the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles,[40] Slater was named the Melbourne club's Player of the Year.

Despite his costly error and Australia losing the game 34–20 to New Zealand, Slater was named Player of the Tournament following the World Cup final in Brisbane.

Slater was selected for Australia in the 2009 Anzac Test match at fullback against New Zealand at Suncorp Stadium in the Kangaroos' 38–10 redemption win over the Kiwis.

Slater scored three tries in Australia's 46–16 win over England in the final and also acrobatically tapped the ball back infield setting up a try for teammate, Cameron Smith.

[58][failed verification] For the 2011 Anzac Test, Slater was selected to play for Australia at fullback, scoring two tries in the Kangaroos 20–10 victory against New Zealand at Cbus Super Stadium.

[61] In Round 24 against the St George Illawarra Dragons at AAMI Park, Slater played his 200th NRL career match in the Storms 8–6 win.

[62] The Melbourne Storm won the minor premiership, but were defeated by the New Zealand Warriors 20–12 in the Preliminary Final at AAMI Park, ending Slater's season.

[64] After playing in 24 matches, Slater was the Storms joint highest tryscorer with 12 tries alongside Cooper Cronk and Matt Duffie in the 2011 NRL season.

[70] An established ambassador for Adidas, in 2012 Slater appeared as part of a promotional campaign[71] for their F50 adizero III boots alongside Dale Thomas of Aussie Rules and European football (soccer) player David Villa.

He picked up a shoulder injury in the Storm's 30–14 home game win over the Warriors, which resulted him missing the next 4 weeks of action;[83] including the Kangaroos' Annual Trans-Tasman ANZAC Test match clash to the Kiwis, with Greg Inglis filling his Fullback position.

[104] During his time on the sideline, his Fullback positions was filled by Darius Boyd for both Australia (during the International Trans-Tasman ANZAC Test match, which was played at Newcastle's Hunter Stadium) and Queensland (for the State of Origin Series).

[109] At the end of the 2016 season, Slater was awarded (and received) the Peter Jackson Medal for his outstanding contribution in assisting Kevin Walters with the coaching during the 2016 State of Origin series for Queensland.

[116][117] In Round 3, Slater made his successful return against the Brisbane Broncos at AAMI Park, starting from the bench and playing for 52 minutes in the Storm's 14–12 win.

With Greg Inglis already sidelined and ruled out of the season with a season-ending knee injury, Slater was expected to return to the Queensland Squad for the 2017 State of Origin series.

[131][132][133] Following Queensland's Origin Game 1 loss to New South Wales,[134] Slater continued-on with his outstanding consistent performances helping the Storm to victories over the Knights[135][136] and Sharks.

[137][138] He was then recalled to the Queensland squad[139][140][141][142] along with Johnathan Thurston for game 2,[143][144] which resulted incumbent Australian Test Fullback Darius Boyd shifting to Centre[145] and Justin O'Neill dropped from the team.

[146][147][148] In Game 2 of the Origin Series, Slater produced an outstanding performance setting-up 2 tries (the first try of the game to debutant left winger Valentine Holmes, when he combined with Johnathan Thurston and Darius Boyd; and the game-winning try to right winger Dane Gagai, when he combined with Michael Morgan leading-up to Johnathan Thurston kicking that winning conversion goal) helping QLD to level the series margin to 1-all in the 18–16 win over NSW at ANZ Stadium.

[160][161][162] Two days following the Grand Final victory, Slater was named in the Australian Test Squad for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup Tournament.

[169] Playing at Fullback in his first international test match for Australia since 2014, Slater scored a try and produced an outstanding man-of-the-match performance in the 18–4 win over England at Melbourne's AAMI Park.

[182] Slater earned criticism during a home Round 6 game against the Newcastle Knights where he was accused of diving which led second-rower Lachlan Fitzgibbon to be sin-binned.

[183][184] Slater also captained the Melbourne Storm for the first time in his NRL Career and during Cameron Smith's suspension absence, against the Manly Sea Eagles in the 4–24 loss during Round 11.

[185] Slater announced his intentions to retire from representative football after the 2018 State of Origin series and was yet to make a decision on playing only at the club level in 2019.

Producing yet another outstanding performance, Slater led Queensland to an 18–12 victory at Suncorp Stadium, thus avoiding a potential 3–0 series whitewash by New South Wales.