Billy Slater may have played his last NRL match despite leading the Melbourne Storm to a convincing 22-6 win over the Cronulla Sharks in Friday night’s preliminary final.

Slater – who has announced he will call time on his glittering career at season’s end – faces a nervous wait after he was penalised for a first half shoulder charge on Cronulla’s Sosaia Feki.

And although the legendary fullback put the incident behind him to score two tries and set up another, he could miss out on the decider due to suspension.

Any charge will rule the 35-year-old out of the grand final after he stopped Feki from scoring an early try and Fox League commentator Braith Anasta said Slater would be “struggling” to sleep before finding out on Saturday if he is charged.

If the veteran is hit with a charge, he is sure to challenge it at the judiciary on Tuesday night in a case that would overshadow the start of grand final week.

"You want your players doing that!" – Joey.

Should Billy miss the grand final? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/xK0b52kxVk

— Wide World of Sports (@wwos) September 21, 2018

Slater’s hit on Feki overshadowed this result, too, with the Storm now set to face either the Sydney Roosters or South Sydney Rabbitohs in next Sunday evening’s decider.

But all the post-match talk will be about Slater, who insisted there was “no malice” in the incident.

Feki was later taken from the field after another hit to his shoulder, sustained in a collision with Storm winger Suliasi Vunivalu.

“I was just coming across at speed and I actually thought Sosaia Feki was going to step back on the inside,” Slater told the Nine Network.

“A collision in the end … it was one of those things where both players were running at speed to get to a position.

“It would have been an awkward place to put my head if I had to duck it down.

“There was no malice or anything in that, I didn’t think.”

Anasta disagreed on Fox League, despite acknowledging “everybody wants to see Billy play” in the grand final.

“The rules are rules … we want to see him play a grand final, we want that fairytale for him, but we can’t change the rules,” he said.

Newcastle legend Danny Buderus added that it was “just tragic” but Queensland coach Kevin Walters said he was “adamant” Slater would be free to play in the decider.

Billy Slater farewells the Melbourne crowd. But was he farewelling rugby league too? Photo: Getty

Storm coach Craig Bellamy said it would be a “tough call” to suspend Slater.

“He hasn’t got too much time to make a decision there and at the end of the day, he’s trying to save a try … I didn’t think too much of it when I first seen it,” he told Nine.

“At the end of the day, you’d like to think hopefully he might get the benefit of the doubt.

“I know there’ll be a lot of people who’ll say it’s alright for anybody else, it’s alright for Billy Slater but, geez, that’d be a tough call for a guy that’s done for the game what he’s done – to miss a GF.”

The match

After an early Cameron Smith penalty gave Melbourne a 2-0 lead, the Storm extended their advantage when Slater, who burst through Cronulla’s line, found Brodie Croft for the game’s first try.

Slater, playing his last game in Melbourne (next week’s grand final is in Sydney) and subject to a terrific reception both before and after the match from the 26,621-strong crowd, then went from provider to scorer.

First, he charged over on the left before linking up with Smith on the stroke of half-time.

This time Smith put in a grubber kick, and Slater did the rest, diving over as the Storm took a 20-0 lead into the break.

Some niggle involving Andrew Fififa in back play left the Sharks unprepared for the quick play and, in that moment, you could see no way back for the Sharks.

To their credit, the Sharks fought on in the second half, despite the injury-enforced absences of Paul Gallen and Wade Graham.

And after enjoying good stints of possessions, the Sharks finally crossed for a try in the 68th minute through a retiree of their own in Luke Lewis.

Lewis finished with a try. Photo: Getty

It wasn’t enough for the Sharks, though, who entered the clash with wins in four of their last five against the Storm.

Melbourne’s win means its hopes of being the first side to win back-to-back premierships since Brisbane Broncos achieved the feat in 1993 are still alive.