By The Cougar
September 24th 2008 @ 9:34am
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Is it fair that Sonny Bill Williams is “most hated in Australia”?
Sonny Bill Williams’s recent “win” in Zoo magazine as “Australia’s most hated person” brought on mixed emotions.
Like many others, I’ve spent much of the past few months sledging and lampooning SBW and his questionable crew for his selfish and ridiculous dash for cash. However, for the notorious deserter to beat a mass killer to the title was even a bit galling for this cynic.
For those of you who missed the story, Bali bomber Amrozi - who was part of the terrorist gang that killed more than 200 people - was named runner-up in the poll.
Have we gone over-board in our self-righteous hammering of SBW, or is it right to unreservedly condemn him so as to let him and others know that his disloyalty and self-centredness shouldn’t be tolerated?
At the end of the day, the guy is only about 22 years old (I think). It’s very easy to be swayed by money men (or anyone persuasive) at such as young age.
Does this vote prove that we are a little too obsessed with our sports stars? I think we’re probably far too quick to jump on our soap-box and be moralistic about someone that shouldn’t be relied on to be wise and noble at the age of 22!
Or am I simply just reading too much into a lad’s mag poll?
These are some of the quotes:
Zoo editor Paul Merrill said the now French rugby player was the clear winner.
“Sonny Bill is someone who did something no Australian should do, he ditched his teammates and walked out,” Merrill said.
“We’re calling him Money Bill Williams for scarpering off to another continent just for the cash.”
Federal MP Belinda Neal was third, disgraced AFL player Wayne Carey was fourth for “shagging his mate’s missus” and “even the name Wayne” while swimmer Nick D’Arcy rounded out the top five.
Zoo Weekly’s Top 50 People We Hate List
1. Sonny Bill Williams - Bulldogs deserter
2. Amrozi - Bali bomber dubbed the smiling assassin
3. Belinda Neal - Tantie-throwing, night-clubbing federal Labor MP
4. Wayne Carey - Misbehaving former AFL player
5. Nick D’Arcy - Dumped from Olympic swim team over assault claim
6. SA Attorney - General Michael Atkinson
7. Pope Benedict
8. Indy 500 General Manager, Greg Hooten - banned booze and boobs.
9&10. John Earnest and Anne Deaves - father and daughter who became dad and mum.
11. Big Brother 2008 winner Terri
12. Corey Worthington - Melbourne party boy
13. Greg Norman - golfer
14. Mercedes Corby - convicted drug smuggler’s sister
15. Schapelle Corby - convicted drug smuggler
16. Peter MacDonald - James Hardie boss who avoided paying compensation
17. David Miscavige - Scientology boss
18. Dennis Ferguson - accused pedophile seeking compensation
19. Kyle Sandilands - radio host
20. David Koch - Sunrise presenter
21. The girl from the AAMI ads
22. Marcus Trescothick - English cricketer
23. Rove McManus - comedian
24. George W Bush - US president
25. Toadie from Neighbours
26. Bank CEOs
27. Japanese Whalers
28. Radovan Karadzic - accused genocidal Serb leader
29. Sheik Yamani - price-rising Saudi oil minister
30. Martin Lawrence - actor
31. John Darwin - Briton who faked own death
32. Sarah Jessica Parker - actor
33. Jamie Oliver - TV chef
34. Todd McKenny - Radio and TV host
35. & 36. Rick Dyer and Matthew Whitton - gave false hope to Bigfoot believers
37. Judge who jailed lesbians in Dubai
38. Gordon Ramsay - foul-mouthed chef
39. Britney Spears
40. Patrick Swayze - gets cancer, continues to smoke
41. Tamsyn Lewis - Olympic athlete
42. Amy Winehouse - drug, booze and self-pity hound
43. Pamela Anderson - no-show for Zoo Weekly
44. Madonna - singer
45. Joanna Griggs - voice of the Olympics
46. Heath Franklin - comedic performer and writer
47. Peter Hore - serial pest
48. Heather Mills - Paul McCartney’s former wife
49. Tim Johnson - the Firepower man
50. Milton Orkopolous - former NSW pollie and convicted sex offender.
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DaniE said | September 24th 2008 @ 9:42am | Report comment
Um, it *is* Zoo magazine. They put Toadie from Neighbours on the list! He’s not even a real life person! What can you expect?
Be interesting to see if the magazine suggested any names when they announced the poll would be made, I mean I think most people would know of SBW than they would have Amrozi, hence it might be that Amrozi might be a suggested person. Anyway the list itself is very funny (#21 The girl from the AAMI ads).
True Tah said | September 24th 2008 @ 10:00am | Report comment
Tall poppy syndrome at its worst.
oikee said | September 24th 2008 @ 10:07am | Report comment
I think sonny was unfortunate because he was the last person towards the end of the year on people’s minds, next year he probably does not make the list, surprised Mundine and Nasser were not on the list. As for being young it dont matter, i did not have a manager at that age and was married had a house and kids were nect on the agenda. Decisions early in life are made every day by many people, you live by the results.
TembaVJ said | September 24th 2008 @ 10:25am | Report comment
12. Corey Worthington - Melbourne party boy should be in 1st place!
Mark said | September 24th 2008 @ 10:45am | Report comment
DaniE - I think they just picked 20 people at a beer barn in Sydeny & based the result on that. I mean SBW beat 9 -paedophile, 16 - words fail me to describe this guy, & 2 - convicted mass murderer……oh btw, I also find it mildly bizzare that SBW is actually worse than the NRL players over teh last few years who’ve commited criminal offences (assault, rape, etc).
It’s a weird world….
Millster said | September 24th 2008 @ 11:11am | Report comment
Hang on guys - some perspective - this is a magazine which regularly puts up a series of ex Big Brother C-listers with admittedly small bikinis containing admittedly nice racks and dubs them the ‘hottest ever’.
Surely we have more credible sources of information to discuss on this site than the Zoo publication…
My only comment of substance is that I’m surprised to have found someone who even reads the articles
Mark H said | September 24th 2008 @ 12:46pm | Report comment
I thought Rove would have toped it.
Spitfire3 said | September 24th 2008 @ 3:21pm | Report comment
“Surely we have more credible sources of information to discuss on this site than the Zoo publication…”
Jesus I hope so. Come on guys, this is a decent website about rugby league (among other things ;-P) we don’t need to be discussing Zoo weakly magazine. Might as well start discussing Today Tonight or A Current Affair.
Leave the rubbish media outlets to their own devices.
Davo said | September 24th 2008 @ 4:11pm | Report comment
Spitfire - some of the lineup looks pretty spot on to me - Kyle Sandilands, Belinda Neal, Nick Darcy, Amrozi……….
On a serious note though, whilst the subject matter and the medium is junk, the question is fair enough. Why do aussies vote an overpaid, spoilt, poorly advised sports-person ahead of terrorists, paedophiles etc ?
Pertinent too given overnight headlines that SBW cant hack a boss who actually behaves like a boss and doesnt let his highly paid employees run the show.
Spitfire3 (GO RAIDERS!) said | September 24th 2008 @ 4:38pm | Report comment
“On a serious note though, whilst the subject matter and the medium is junk, the question is fair enough. Why do aussies vote an overpaid, spoilt, poorly advised sports-person ahead of terrorists, paedophiles etc ?”
My answer to that is that it’s a crap quality poll that shouldn’t be taken as anything more than light entertainment. Don’t get me wrong, most of the people on that list certainly are bell ends for some reason or another. But to say Sonny Bill Williams is more hated than a paedophile or terrorist bomber is insulting and a bit sickening. I choose to believe that the majority of my countrymen are not that shallow and are not represented by the readers of this trashy mag.
But all that is irrelevant, because I don’t read that trashy mag. If they want to write that rubbish there, I don’t care. I just wanted to register my opposition to our (much more respectable) Roar people duplicating it here.
Spiro Zavos said | September 25th 2008 @ 10:39pm | Report comment
There is an important issue here other than the nonsense of Zoo’s list. It is the demonising of Sonnny Bill Williams by sections of the RL world. The News Ltd vitriol and misinformation is on a par with the sort of treatment the rottweillers hand out almost every week to Phil Gould and is clearly responsible for the Zoo rating
.
dasilva said | September 26th 2008 @ 1:25am | Report comment
meh
Sonny Bill Williams fiasco happen to football all the time.
Everyone remember Dick Advocaat.
I do admire other codes who have higher standards of loyalty expected from players and clubs.
Koala Bear said | September 26th 2008 @ 7:45am | Report comment
I have to confess I was amongst the disappointed NRL supporters with SBW defection to Rugby Union.. But after I watched an interview that SBW made about his defection. I think of the one valid point he made, which made a lot of sense to me .. That point was where is the salary cap on David Gallop with what he can earn from the NRL .. Who was instantantly leading the legal charge of having SBW jailed and his possessions taken away from him.. IF SBW is up there then so should be David Gallop along side him..
~~~~~~~
KB
The Answer said | September 26th 2008 @ 8:32am | Report comment
Spiro et al,
It is Zoo magazine for crying out loud, wanna know why they did it? To work people up in a lather (a different type of lather from the one’s the girls in the magazine are designed to produce). So everyone get a sense of perspective and calm down. It wasn’t the census and there are no important issues here.
Spiro, if you actually listen to what Rebecca Wilson says you are in more trouble than I can solve. Don’t worry Gould is big enough and certainly ugly enough to look after himself instead of needing to whip around the Fairfax office for a posse.
Spitfire3 (GO RAIDERS!) said | September 26th 2008 @ 9:31am | Report comment
“So everyone get a sense of perspective and calm down. It wasn’t the census and there are no important issues here. ”
The Answer, that’s not really fair to say. Spiro was pointing out that the tone of this poll is similar to the tone that we hear from other mainstream rugby league media. That being the case, it doesn’t really matter that this poll is junk.
The Link said | September 26th 2008 @ 12:46pm | Report comment
I would pay about as much attention to most of the stuff in News Ltd publications as to what appears in Zoo Weekly. In fact the on-line versions of Zoo and the Tele in particular are starting to look remarkably similar.
Personally I think Sonny and Toulon have made their own bed on alot of this anyway. For example Mourad Boudjellal fueled the fire when deliberatley lied to the media that he wasn’t talking to Sonny re playing there.
Hopefully SBW can stay healthy and reach his potential, because he’s still looking like the talented but injury prone player he was for the Dogs.
dasilva said | September 26th 2008 @ 5:49pm | Report comment
“I think of the one valid point he made, which made a lot of sense to me .. That point was where is the salary cap on David Gallop with what he can earn from the NRL”
You know what. A lot of European Countries have laws restricting salary on CEO. I think in England - CEO can’t earn more then 15 times the wage of the average worker of a company. Other like Germany and france it is about 10 times the average worker.
I think it wouldn’t be bad if Australia has laws like that. I think the average wage of CEO here is about 20 times the average worker. in United States it is about 100 times.
Tom said | September 28th 2008 @ 8:31pm | Report comment
I would have thought Greg Bird would be somewhere on there (although I suppose he hasn’t been found guilty yet).