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Channel Nine boss David Gyngell said yesterday that rugby league needs Sonny Bill Williams to compete with the AFL now that Buddy Franklin has signed with the Swans.
Why?
I was in Melbourne in August and went to watch the Rabbitohs play the Storm with my cousin. He loves his AFL but is not ideologically opposed to the NRL, as some of his southern acquaintances are.
He didn’t know the names of any Storm players.
Despite the years of success Melbourne has had, my cousin, like the majority of Victorians, simply doesn’t care about rugby league.
Why?
Because Victoria is AFL country, just as New South Wales is NRL country.
So the Swans now have Buddy Franklin, but will one player really do that much difference?
After winning the premiership in 2012 and the preliminary final this year, there isn’t much else for them to do.
I don’t know too much about AFL but from all accounts Franklin is a great player. The NRL has plenty of great players too, and only one of them is named Sonny Bill Williams.
The Daily Telegraph has reported throughout the year that game attendance and TV ratings are actually down this year.
The Sydney Swans winning the 2012 AFL Premiership surely cannot be the only reason the ratings are down.
Perhaps Sonny Bill Williams is the only thing keeping the ratings from plummeting, but I suspect that is not the case.
It would be great if Williams did stay in the NRL, because he is a fantastic player, but his loss would not spell the end of rugby league as we know it.
Gyngell also pointed to Israel Folau leaving for the AFL as a loss to the NRL.
Was it?
He was a great NRL player (and as we have seen with his Wallabies call-up, still has it should he decide to return), but does it really do the AFL any good to poach a league player who is hopeless at AFL?
Players like Folau and Williams may leave the NRL, but there will always be others to step up.
The NRL still has Cooper Cronk, Greg Inglis, Jonathon Thurston, Daly Cherry-Evans and Todd Carney – and I write those names in full knowledge I am leaving out plenty of other great players.
I know I am not alone when I say I will still watch and love rugby league whether Sonny Bill Williams is in the game or not.
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