- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
With all the recent talk of Sonny Bill William’s defection to rugby union and the overtures Benji Marshall is supposedly receiving from cashed-up European rugby clubs, I am beginning to wonder if these are the same two injury-prone, 30-minute wonders that I have seen in recent years.
The Sonny Bill I know does not back up after an Anzac Test in the same way true professionals like Nathan Hindmarsh and Darren Lockyer do.
No indeed.
The Sonny Bill I know likes to take a week off to “get his knee right” and another week off to “have a rest”.
The Benji Marshall I know would be an Immortal … in touch footy. So fragile are his shoulders, he reportedly can only sleep on his back.
He can’t even get himself to front for an Anzac test, so fragile is his constitution and AC-joint.
Okay, enough sarcasm.
My point is this: what exactly is rugby league losing when two unproven and chronically injured youngsters decide to leave for greener pastures? Or is that greener dollars?
Williams, a regular starter of games for the Dogs, could never be described as a finisher of them. His appearances have been sporadic and, at times, completely uninspiring.
He has shown no leadership in a team in desperate need of it.
Benji Marshall will forever be a one-season wonder.
What has he done since 2005?
His game has devolved into that of a predictable one-dimensional old-style “stand-off”. Added to the fact that he has not played five consecutive games, probably ever, and you have to question his value to the Tigers and the NRL.
The looming departures of players of the calibre of Darren Lockyer and Steve Menzies represent significant losses. They were consistent professionals who always put their club before themselves.
Players who would front up on a Friday night after a bruising Origin encounter the previous Wednesday.
Sonny Bill Williams and “Bruiser Benji” have proven essentially nothing when their achievements are compared along side such greats.
What will we lose if they are both gone?
In real terms, precisely nothing.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.