Billy Slater and wife Nicole are seen for the first time since the footy legend suffered an unimaginable family tragedy

NRL legend Billy Slater and his wife Nicole have been seen together in public for the first time since suffering an unimaginable family tragedy.

The grieving couple took some time to walk the red carpet before the Cirque Du Soleil – LUZIA show on Thursday night at Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse.

Earlier this month, Slater’s brother-in-law drowned while saving his daughter’s life when she fell from her boat at a Queensland dam.

Father-of-four Ryan Craig, who was married to Slater’s older sister Sheena, died at the Kinchant Dam near Mackay on March 11 when the boat he and his family were on broke down and went into the water to rescue his daughter.

The boy, aged nine, was pulled safely from the dam, but Mr Craig’s body was not recovered until two days later.

As the search for Mr Craig was carried out, Senior Sergeant Trevor Robson said: “The family are obviously very upset by what has happened and we can only imagine the trauma they are going through.”

“You wouldn’t wish that on your worst enemy.”

Cameron Smith, Slater’s long-time teammate at the Melbourne Storm as well as in Queensland and Australia, said the champion fullback was shocked by the family tragedy.

Smith revealed the tragedy took place where Mr Craig, his partner and their four children used to go on regular “family outings”.

“I called Billy and talked to him and he just said, ‘Look, it’s an absolutely tragic set of circumstances, given the situation,'” he said.

‘It’s a place where they spend a lot of time with the children as they grow up. They have four children. They have four girls.

“They were in the water and just a sequence of events really led to Ryan and his oldest daughter falling into the water and unfortunately, some weather blew up and took the boat away from where they had fallen into the water and the boat couldn’t be started.

“It truly was a heroic effort on Ryan’s part to stay floating as long as he did to save his daughter.

“Finally he ran out of power. A little later some motorcyclists arrived and I don’t know how, it’s a miracle that the girl was still afloat.’

Slater grew up with his older sister in Innisfail, about 90 kilometers south of Cairns in Queensland.

The all-time football great, 40, who was also a promising jockey, played 323 games for the Melbourne Storm during a decorated career.

In addition to his 31 caps for Queensland and 30 caps for Australia, Slater starred in seven NRL Grand Finals, won the Dally M Medal as the NRL’s best player in 2011 and took home the Golden Boot as the world’s best player in 2008. .

Since retiring in 2018, he has had success as a coach of the Queensland State of Origin team and as a commentator for Channel Nine.