By Steve Jancetic
August 8th 2008 @ 6:09am
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Williams hoping defection leaves lasting legacy
An unapologetic Sonny Bill Williams says he hopes his trailblazing defection to French rugby union will be the catalyst for a better deal for the NRL players he left behind.
Brushing off claims he’d let his former teammates down with his cloak and dagger departure from Australia which led to him being branded a coward, Williams [...]
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Recidivist said | August 8th 2008 @ 8:44am | Report comment
The best line from SBW was the bus driver line.
The other area that he showed his true colours was when he said he had a dream to become an All Black. Putting that in perspective, he did have a contract, but that would have gotten in the way of a sportsman following a dream. Brad Thorne did do things a little more smoothly when shifting between league and union.
Fatty Vautin couldn’t accept that anyone would want to do anything else through winter than spend their time waiting in suspense for the tackle count to get to 5 for the pinnacle of rugby league, the moment when you aren’t sure whether it is going to be a cross field kick, a basic bomb or the little grubber kick….. The suspense gets me every time….
Steffy said | August 8th 2008 @ 9:07am | Report comment
Mere excuses. SBW and french union deserve each other.
cosmos forever said | August 8th 2008 @ 9:13am | Report comment
J’y a-t-il au-dessus de lui, est-il un jeu ce week-end ?
Scrum Importance said | August 8th 2008 @ 9:27am | Report comment
It is easy to try and blame Mundine – SBW has double the IQ of Mundine and he knows his worth as a brand. He signed a contract when he was one of three or four stars of the club. That means he shared all the marketing and promotion work. Now all of a sudden he is the only star player at the club and basically has to do all the promotion and the marketing, not only of the Bulldogs, but also the NZRU and even when the SOO is on, he is one if the 1st guys the footy Show wants on its panel – all this extra work and no extra dollars – he is hugely marketable, yet becuase of the Salary Cap he is restricted to what he can earn from his marketability and the club can use him for whatever purposes they see fit. In my view that is akin to theft using his image and personality for max reward (ARL, NRL and NZRL not just bulldogs) without compensation. No way any of the golfers or Swimmers would get treated in the same way.
Footy Show boof head, couldn’t have a balanced arguement if you put them on a sea saw…
Steffy said | August 8th 2008 @ 9:36am | Report comment
I take it there’s no salary cap in french union.
Recidivist said | August 8th 2008 @ 9:57am | Report comment
Steffy, There is no salary cap in French Union. Personally, I’d also like to thank you for referring to the code properly.
Rather than go back over the same ground of the sanctity of the contract blah bla blah, did anyone take the time to think about the position he wants to play? He is a big boy who can run hard. He wants to play ‘centre’ (I have a feeling he said inside centre’. IF, he can adjust to the game, he might go down as one of the scariest inside centres going around.
I had assumed he would play as blind side flanker. In the centres he could cause some damage!!
mudskipper said | August 8th 2008 @ 10:40am | Report comment
Sonny Bill Williams was bullied at the Bulldogs…good luck for walking away from a disrespectful working relationship.. League clubs need to look after their players better; furthermore they do treat them like cattle and are disrespectful to many… Clearly SBW didn’t want to speak openly during the channel nine interview as it is now in the hands of the lawyers…and channel nine is a NRL stakeholder…
Good luck to you SBW for walking out on a questionable contract which took obvious advantage of you. The Footy Show after chat by the panel was nonsense, contracts are broken every day, look at channel nine’s own business dealings and staff maltreatment, that’s the real world and SBW has grown up and realises it now. What profession at 22 do you sign a 5 year fixed contract, its rubbish.
I Look forward to seeing SBW play some good rugby…
Justin said | August 8th 2008 @ 11:06am | Report comment
Gee Mud you are making some statements there. Care to back it up with any facts? Whats disrespectful and how do they treat them like cattle?
If things were so sh%thouse then why sign for 5 years? Its money, plain and simple, dont treat us like fools that its anything else. If he wants to be an all black then here a news flash – he cant do it from France. Show some class and go to NZ and learn the game like Thorn did.
Jameswm said | August 8th 2008 @ 11:15am | Report comment
Tough choice of where I’d rather be playing my rugby, out of NZ and the French Riviera.
There is no question SBW’s contract was for below his market value, but what’s he going to do if the NRL win an injunction against him playing anywhere?
He thinks he was poorly treated and that may be so. He is such a huge brand in League, that he’s woth so much more than $400K a year.
Normally if an employee signes a contract (6-24 months is the norm) and they want to leave in the middle of it, they tell their employer it isn’t working out and they’ve decided to leave. I couldn’t imagine any employer taking legal action to force them to stay. Even with the injunction, SBW has not gone to a rival/competitor. Different industry, different country, normally you’d let them go.
League should have washed their hands of him and gotten on with life. Imagine if they lose the court case, which they easily could?
john said | August 8th 2008 @ 11:58am | Report comment
I must have been watching a different interview to Fatty and the rest of the footy show team, cause I totally understood what SBW was saying and thought he made a lot of sense. The only thing he didn’t explain directly was why he did it the way he did, by running away and breaking a ’sacred contract’ (bulshit). Fatty and the team kept harping on about the contract, the contract, and didn’t seem to hear what SBW actually said.
He wasn’t happy!! The club treats players like mere cattle, it’s just a business. And the line about about what’s happended to Corey Hughes from a wonderful league family loyal to the club, shows the club has NO loyalty to players at all! So why should they be up in arms when a player is unloyal to them like Sunny?
I wouldn’t have done it exactly like Sunny did, like Laurie Daley said I would’ve gone to management and said I’m not happy, and I want out! And if they didn’t let me go then I could have walked. At least give them a chance to free me. So that’s his only error for me. But hey, he’s 22 years old, it sure isn’t a criminal offense, and the dogs and the game has only itself to blame!
I can’t believe that Fatty didn’t understand the bus driver line … like hello fatty, that was as clear as day mate! If a bus driver was offered thousands and thousands of dollars more to go to another company, wouldn’t most go? Why aren’t there limits on what anyone else can make, especially managers like David Gallop, and yet league players have a limit placed on them. That was so clear fatty, how dumb are ya mate? And the canoe line, well, don’t get me started.
Which brings me nicely to Steve Folkes and the Muslim stuff. I love Folkesy and was an avid dogs supporter in the 80’s when he was part of the grand final winning teams. I respect him very much and all that he’s achieved. But he’s only a proud of the world he lives in after all. And lets face it, our country and the world at the moment, thinks muslims are all terrorists and evil and something to be feared, so of course we wouldn’t want any friend being caught up in that!
It’s ignorance and lack of knowledge that’s responsible but also the way modern leaders like Bush and his little Aussie lacky Howard used that fear to whip up public support for a ridiculous war, that most people have now woken up to as being all about money and power … should I mention Oil? So there is a bigger picture here. League is a product of society! I just didn’t expect that of Folkesy though, given the amount of muslim players that have come through the club over the past 10-15 years. Isn’t El Masri the clearest example of how descent and ‘normal’ muslim people can be? It’s not something to hate, be fearful off etc … It’s just another religion, another way to live, and hey, why isn’t that ok?
Anyways guys, I thought SBW explained himself really well for an ‘uneducated coconut’ (footy team perception) and pointed to the problems in our game today, which of course the new rulers don’t wanna accept and face up to. The longer they delay, the further behind the game will go, and I only hope we can retrieve it in time before it really does go to the dogs!!!
Recidivist said | August 8th 2008 @ 12:04pm | Report comment
The real laugh will come if they do get their injunction.
When an employer is able to enforce a restraint of trade clause, the employee gets paid their full entitlements by the employer for the duration of the restraint. In this case, the court might determine that it is appropriate that SBW should have waited until the end of the year and in the meantime he can’t play for Toulon BUT then the Bulldogs have to pay him his full wage for that period.
The funniest I have heard was a case where a company brought on restraint of trade proceedings against an employee who was leaving. The practice is that when you do that you write to them and you enclose a cheque. In the case I know of the employee just started work anyway and the old employer lost the case. However, they did not put a stop on the cheque and the employee cashed it anyway. The old employer was too embarrassed to start proceedings to recover the amount of the cheque!!!!!!!
The Link said | August 8th 2008 @ 12:13pm | Report comment
Jameswm – you’ll find the proceedings are about damages, not about stopping him or bringing him back. The key point is he didn’t ask, he just went.
Justin – spot on.
From the interview I saw a very confused and angry young man. He just did not make sense. If Steve Folkes was the problem, he’s just been punted as coach, so the SBW camp seems to be clutching at straws.
Fair enough if he wanted out, but do it the right way and don’t drag all and sundry through the mud in order to justify walking out.
Scrum Importance said | August 8th 2008 @ 12:27pm | Report comment
He never said S Folkes was the problem. He was a symptom of the problem.
Not sure what people were listening too. Steve Folkes was a symptom, it was the club he had a problem with. What Steve Folkes said obviously offended him – he went the management to make them aware of it and they did nothing, this was the catalyst that finally broke him – as it awoke him to the astonishing fact that like in all sport – administrators, coaches, media and who ever else you want to bring in are in it for their own self serving interests. Combine that realisation with the fact that you gave up over $1M to stay loyal to the club and team and alll of a sudden you have one pissed off kiwi.
On a side note, why is assumed because you play in the same team as someone else (another employee essentially) you are automatically mates. He may have let down his team, but can everyone stop saying he let down his mates.
The Link said | August 8th 2008 @ 12:27pm | Report comment
john – out of interest who has played on the wing for the Bulldogs for about the last 10 years?
Rick said | August 8th 2008 @ 12:39pm | Report comment
I was thumping the floor in anger during the interview – the rubbish that he was saying was unbelievable. He talks like Mundine now, and now he’s in with him and Khoder it’s all about him being a victim (i’m surprised he didn’t play the race card). I couldn’t accept that one of his problems was that Folkes and the club didn’t like his new ‘friends’, so he called an emergency meeting with the ceo and coach – how pathetic! He says he loves the game and wants to see it thrive, while at the same time run it into the ground by paying players more than the game can afford. He’s an easily led young man, and despite what he says it was a dog act to walk out like he did.
john said | August 8th 2008 @ 1:03pm | Report comment
The Link, I refer you to this part of my previous entry:
“I just didn’t expect that of Folkesy though, given the amount of muslim players that have come through the club over the past 10-15 years. Isn’t El Masri the clearest example of how descent and ‘normal’ muslim people can be? It’s not something to hate, be fearful off etc … It’s just another religion, another way to live, and hey, why isn’t that ok?”
And Rick, we were obviously watching different interviews mate .. the biggest rubbish I heard was fatty and the team going on about the f….n “contract”!
And SBW at 22 is a lot more articulate and smarter than Anthony Mundine will ever be. Though for all his carrying on, bravado and ego, Mundine occassionally hits the mark with points he makes. For whatever faults he may have, I don’t dismiss him altogther like most non-thinking league fans seem to do. And Sunny seemed to know exactly what he was saying, just didn’t perfect the execution at all times during the interview – hey, he’s 22 and an “uneducated coconut” (from popular reasoning). But I understood him very clearly. Maybe because I had my ears open and was open to what he had to say, without having prejudged him?
Recidivist said | August 8th 2008 @ 1:19pm | Report comment
john, you really should not laugh at Rick like that. It is totally unfair, quite similar to stealing candy/lollies from kids.
Rick, any chance your wife filmed you thumping the floor? if so, can you PLEASE post it here? i am sure there are lots of us that would enjoy watching it over and over.
Steffy, where have you gone?
Recidivist said | August 8th 2008 @ 3:15pm | Report comment
The latest news report I have seen has claimed that the Bulldogs have won an injunction stopping SBW from playing in France.
The damn saga won’t stop!!!!
NRL disgraceful organisation said | August 8th 2008 @ 6:18pm | Report comment
Not watching nine or NRL again
one wise man said | August 8th 2008 @ 9:51pm | Report comment
Link
Have you ever changed jobs and not told your existing employer until you had a new one?
Yes unless your stupid everyone has.
However you would expect your employer to steal your house and what ever else you own because you did. He earnt and paid for his assets now the disgraceful people at the NRL and bulldogs want to take it back.
that is just being pathetic because you can’t win.
By the way I don’t like league and think SBW is a brainless meat head I am standing up for a principle which you don’t seem to have.
Did you know David the Girl Gallop earns twice as much as SBW?
The Link said | August 9th 2008 @ 1:25pm | Report comment
one wise man, i’d tell my employer in person, with notice, not through an agent while i’m on the tarmac at mascot.
if you’re sticking up for SBW based on principles, then i’d recommend taking a good hard look at what you stand for