Sonny Bill Williams

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl
Is he soon going to return to the NRL?

Much as he is hated in these parts for his shocking walk out while at the Bulldogs, I suspect he will flourish if he returns to NRL and all will soon be forgotten.

I would love to see Sonny Bill back in league , you cant argue that he is a class player

Interesting reading the comments posted by the Sydney siders at the bottom of the article,There's abviously a bit of feeling still about the Bulldogs walk out.

I suspect that Money Bill is using Rugby League as a tool to up his money in union. Rmember Quade Cooper did the same thing about a year to 18 months ago.

I’m not surprised really – one thing is for sure he won’t stay in NZ rugby after this year which is a shame because he’s great for the kids. Loved the staged meeting though....

There were reports in a couple of Aussie papers over the weekend that SBW had signed with the Sydney Roosters for ~ £500k a year for 2013-14. That'd be an awfully big chunk of their salary cap though - see here for more info.

It's been reported over here that he's close to agreeing a 5 year £800,000 a year deal.
apparently the Roosters believe that there's a good chance that the NRL salary cap will rise due to the new tv deal with channel nine. And that they will have extra money due to the expected retirements this year of Anthony Minichiello and Braith Anasta.

tigerrobins wrote:It's been reported over here that he's close to agreeing a 5 year £800,000 a year deal.
apparently the Roosters believe that there's a good chance that the NRL salary cap will rise due to the new tv deal with channel nine. And that they will have extra money due to the expected retirements this year of Anthony Minichiello and Braith Anasta.

The report I saw said $800,000 Australian (or $1,000,000 NZ) per year. At the moment the cap is $AU4.3m, shared across the highest paid 25 players, so it's possible the Roosters could fit SBW under it - they'd be happier if it went up to 5 or 6m though. Presumeably they'll be in the market for replacements for Anasta and Minichiello too?

You would think so, unless they have a couple of young players coming through, that they can pay alot less to at tha start.
Do you think that Sonny and the Roosters are a good fit?

Hmmm, the Roosters are the team that historically everyone else hates because they buy in other teams' talent (Anasta started out at the Bulldogs, Minichiello at Souths IIRC, etc etc). Note that these days every team in the NRL is guilty of the same, it's just the Roosters have more history at it.

The Roosters are based in Bondi, plenty of Kiwis there too

It'll be interesting to see if they let him keep on boxing - if they don't I figure he'll get bored after a couple of years and move on to something else. Again.

That said, when he is settled somewhere SBW is a model pro - teetotal these days (he converted to Islam while at the Bulldogs) and pretty hard working. He was fitting in pretty well at the Crusaders who are a very "family" team, just a shame the earthquake and multitude of aftershocks drove him out.

has sonny finished with union then?

cricketfan90 wrote:has sonny finished with union then?

He's contracted to the NZRU and Waikato for the rest of 2012. From 2013 any NRL team can sign him without having to pay the Sydney Bulldogs a whopping transfer fee (he left them mid-contract to go and play rugby union in France).

Won't the fact he can't sign till next year affect the Roosters recruitment for this year seeing as they can't offer big wages etc? Knowing that they are going to lose alot of there salary cap to him.
If he dosn't end up at the Roosters, Where do you think he'll go. I wouldn't be suprised if Souths make a bid. The only other clubs i can see entering are possably Manley or the Warriors.

tigerrobins wrote:Won't the fact he can't sign till next year affect the Roosters recruitment for this year seeing as they can't offer big wages etc? Knowing that they are going to lose alot of there salary cap to him.
If he dosn't end up at the Roosters, Where do you think he'll go. I wouldn't be suprised if Souths make a bid. The only other clubs i can see entering are possably Manley or the Warriors.

I imagine you're right, the Roosters would be taking a big chance going out and recruiting this year - the salary cap might not move (some poorer clubs are dead against any increase). I'm pretty sure the Warriors couldn't pay that kind of money - Eric Watson hasn't done well out of the global financial crisis. Though he might be tempted if he was bidding against Souths (he beat up Russell Crowe in a restaurant a few years back).

It could all be a nice Khoder Nasser ploy to make sure that both the NZRU and Toulon know to have plenty of cash ready later this year too.

A quick look at Where Sonny Bill has been in the last five years ,goes something like.
2008...Canterbury Bankstown.
2009...Toulon rugby with Tana.
2010...ITM cup with Canterbury rugby.
2011...Super xv with Crusaders and World Cup with All Blacks.
2012...ITM cup with Waikato Chiefs.
2013...Possibilities,Auckland blues (Nonu's deal is for one year)League(Roosters,Souths,Parramatta) who knows? you may as well throw in the Dallas Cowboys.
But I'm pretty confident that he wont have a Sydney address anywhere near Belmore.

On a slightly different note.
His latest series of Powerade adds are sure getting a lot airtime on New Zealand television.

And on a further note:
This weekend is the annual Whakatane (Benji Marshall's town) touch tournament.
Every year a local Baa Baaz team ring in a team compiling both Union and League players.
This year Benji is joined by the likes of Tana Umaga,Christian Cullen,Piri Weepu and Sonny Bill .