In 2008 Sonny Bill Williams walked out on the Canterbury Bulldogs in the middle of the night. He left the club at the worst possible time and he did it without a second thought. He took the most cowardly way out any sportsman could possibly take, and he has zero remorse ever since.
In 2013 Sonny Bill Williams is playing for the Sydney Roosters. As he prepares to face his old club for the first time, there are a number of people in the media that are trying to defend his actions over the last 5 years.
Why?
There is no getting around what Sonny Bill Williams did. There is no way to tart it up. He walked out of a long term contract without even saying why. He didn’t even have the guts to walk into the Bulldogs offices and ask for a release. He just left, and he did so after months of talking about wanting to be a leader for his club, and for the game in general.
Why people want to excuse him for that, and in some cases reward him for that, is beyond me. Why anyone would berate any Bulldogs fan for still being outraged is also something I don’t understand.
I don’t care if Bulldogs fans hate Sonny Bill Williams. They can like and hate who ever they want. I would suggest that if you took a poll of Rugby League fans across the game the vast majority of them would say they hate Sonny Bill Williams for what he did.
As for me, I think Sonny Bill Williams is irrelevant. He is just another football player, one that doesn’t stand out nearly as much as various commentators would have you believe.
If Bulldogs fans want to turn out in huge numbers and vent their anger at Sonny Bill Williams, that is fine. They are allowed to. All of these commentators that are saying that Bulldogs fans don’t have a right to express anger at him, every single one of them hold grudges against others that go back years over much, much less.
I hope Bulldogs fans fill Allianz Stadium. I hope the crowd doesn’t stop booing Sonny Bill Williams for the full 80 minutes. I hope the Bulldogs beat the Roosters and I hope Sonny Bill Williams hates every single minute of it. Why? Because it is something the Bulldogs club needs. It is a moment the club needs to have, and put behind them.
I couldn’t care less about Sonny Bill Williams but I do pay attention when tens of thousands of people within the Rugby League community get angry about something.
In life, you’ll never find yourself loved by 100% of people. However, if you find yourself doing something that angers the majority of people, for what ever reason, you need to stop and think about what you’ve done. I don’t think Sonny Bill Williams has ever done that.
Now Bulldogs fans get their chance to make him think about what he did all those years ago.
Forget what the media is saying….Bulldogs fans, you have every right to be angry. Let Sonny Bill Williams know how you feel.
This is your night, not his…
refreshing to read an honest article with from someone who isn’t just going with the flow or trying to incite violence.
Its a perspective I can’t believe hasn’t been written about until now. I’m getting heaps of positive feedback from this article. Its great that people have enjoyed it so much.
“He walked out of a long term contract without even saying why. He didn’t even have the guts to walk into the Bulldogs offices and ask for a release.”
This is incorrect. He had issues with the hierarchy at the Bulldogs and has discussed a couple of them openly in the past. He re-signed for an amount much lower than he was offered elsewhere on the proviso that senior players were also going to be re-signed. He took the offer in order to keep the group together. Rightly so, he wanted to leave given they denied him the chance to re-negotiate once those players left. He was lied to by management who wanted to keep him on while signing poor substitutes for similar money. The reason why Sonny and those who know no longer speak about it is because they are bound not to.
Bulldogs fans should be pointing their fingers at the club for sending them on a roller coaster ride over the last dozen years and performing way below expectations. Meanwhile they are out buying whatever comes onto the market, leaving the majority of their talented juniors undeveloped, pushed down the pecking order or sent elsewhere. The NRL should have been looking after one of the top players in the competition, but washed their hands of the issue. So we lost him from the game for 5 years and probably as a long term NRL player. Terrible result.