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News, Reviews & Opinion - Sean Fagan - RL1908.com

Retired rugby league firebrand Mark Geyer, described Sonny Bill Williams' sudden departure from our shores as a "dog act".

Speaking on Channel 9 on Sunday, Geyer made it plain that for any footballer to walk out mid-season on his team and his team-mates, was the lowest of lows for anyone who professed to be a man.

I don't think there are too many in the rugby league world bemoaning Williams for going to rugby union, if that is what he wants to do.

Rugby league battled for a century for the right for footballers to freely play rugby without fear of life-time bans and ostracism. It would be duplicitous, to say the least, for rugby league to start bleating now about footballers exercising that freedom, even if it is the 13-man code's detriment.

What has got most in the league fraternity upset is that Williams – mid-way through the first season of a 5-year contract – has "done a runner."

With his team, the Canterbury Bulldogs, languishing at the bottom of the NRL table, Williams has left them all to battle on, and seemingly, he did it all without even so much as a word to anyone at his club.

As many will argue, Sonny's action is downright unAustralian - notwithstanding that he isn't Australian, but a Kiwi of Samoan heritage. Still, those cultures too hold similar sentiments and values when it comes to sharing common bonds and not running away when the going gets tough.

As one of my mates (a hard-working concretor) voiced at the pub last night: "Imagine if I just downed tools mid-way through a concrete pour and walked away, crying that that the work was too hard and there were better money elsewhere – how could I just up and leave my work-mates to finish the job on their own?"

Williams' "runner" strikes at the very heart of what playing a hard-nosed team sport like rugby league means. You are supposed to fight on to the final whistle, no matter how tough it becomes.

Sonny Bill was once revered by all in the sport. Still only 22 years old, with the physique of the Greek god Adonis, he played the hard and fast game that appealed to most rugby league fans.

There's no doubt he was well on the way to being one of the greats of the code.

He was the favourite footballer of many children, and arguably, on his looks alone, one of the few NRL players that made women gasp merely at the glimpse of him without his jersey on. For many Polynesians, he was their hero and a life example.

For the media, particularly the Sydney newspaper tabloids, he was a consistent source of stories as they relentlessly pursued the happenings of his life off-field. Though clearly disdainful of the "fishbowl life"that all NRL stars have to now endure, he seemed to be coming to grips with the reality of a modern NRL career, of being the "role model.”

Then someone recently pointed out to Sonny his real worth, and that he'd made a mistake last year in signing a 5-year deal with the Bulldogs.

Rather than having a "fishbowl life”, Sonny, with the help of his new friends, soon determined that he was actually a very big fish in a very small pond.

With an NRL salary cap that ultimately prevents the code's star players from taking a greater share of the game's income, and limits their off-field earnings from other sources, Williams began to feel he was dudded. He also lamented that, despite his stature as one of the code's biggest stars, he had no right to participate in rugby league's State of Origin series.

When it was pointed out what money was on offer from French rugby union clubs, along with the added benefit of an absence of newspaper hounds on his tail, and a life-style that included access to the French Riveria and jet-setting around Europe for football and leisure, no wonder it sounded appealing.

Throw in the thought that a NRL footballer's body is more often than not a train-wreck by the time their career ends at around 28, instead of playing rugby union well into his late 30s, the potential $ earnings leave every NRL footballer with an easy equation – a "no-brainer"if you will.

Still, none of that excuses Sonny Bill from walking out on his team-mates mid-season.

While the NRL and Canterbury are in Court seeking to take legal action to bring Sonny Bill to heel, what do we really know yet of Williams' actions?

He hasn't said anything to explain his actions.

What if he has just felt an urgent and immediate need to get away, to clear his head, to see for himself what is actually on offer in France? Is it a cry for help? Is he just making a point?

He might turn up in Sydney next week, igniting a media frenzy and bidding war to buy his story.

The reality is that – aside from the isolated AFL – every Australian sport is now part of a world wide picture. Players will migrate to where the cash is.

For decades Sydney rugby league clubs, on the back of poker-machine driven Leagues Clubs, threw lucrative offers of money at the best players from England, Queensland and the bush, along with converts from rugby union.

Now the money has all dried up, the gold-rush is moving on. Whether the NRL and its clubs can find a new seam of gold in time is the big question.

Article originally written for ABC Unleashed 1/8/2008