As the fallout from the Sonny Bill Williams walk out affair continues; it seems the magnitude of the situation is starting to open up old Super League War wounds as the NRL and Rugby League heavy weights struggle to comprehend whats gone on with the Bulldogs and SBW.
While it’s widely known that the News Limited and Daily Telegraph camp do not like Phil Gould and regularly take pot shots at the Channel 9 and Fairfax commentator in their Rugby League columns, it seems that in this instance their targeting of Gould over his heated debate with David Gallop could be on the mark.
David Gallop and Phil Gould spoke on air during Triple M Radios coverage of Monday Night Football earlier this week and the discussion around Sonny Bill Williams developed into a slanging match between Gould and Gallop, with the NRL Chief Executive having to ask permission to speak several times as Phil Gould spoke over the top of him.
The bad blood between Gould and Gallop dates back to the Super League War with both men key players in the ARL and News Limited Camps.
As the debate rages over Sonny Bill Williams quitting without notice and in the middle of a binding contract with the Bulldogs; the likes of Gould and others have pointed to the fact that many contracts were treated with little respect during the Super League War and this latest case involving Sonny Bill Williams could have been prevented if the NRL had been more proactive in ensuring players were happy and contracts were more precisely constructed.
While the focus on the sanctity of the contract is ‘key’ in the Sonny Bill Williams case; it’s extremely important that the likes of David Gallop, Phil Gould and the whole range of NRL and Rugby League heavyweights bind together and show unity in this crucial period for the game. The target here is Sonny Bill Williams, forget dragging out the Super League talk or playing the News Limited vs ARL card.
Regardless of his reasons, Sonny Bill Williams has illegally and wrongfully walked out on a binding agreement with his club and his competition.
So Phil, David and the rest of the Rugby League front-liners take notice;Â forget old wounds – lets put that aside for now while we deal with a crucial cross-road of the NRL’s future.
If Sonny Bill Williams is allowed to get off scott free, then we ultimately face the disintegration of the game we know and love.
You can listen to the Phil Gould vs David Gallop Audio by Clicking Here
Phil Gould is 100% correct with most things he says, the problem is he speaks he’s mind and those corporate / managerial types like David Gallop dont’ wanna hear the truth, which is that they’ve completely stuffed ‘the greatest game of all’. Super League started it all, it’s never recovered, and I reckon the games gone unless the people and ex players take control of the game once more. We need an urgent crisis meeting of 20 or so highly respcted ex players to nut our solutions to the massive challengers confronting League, if it’s to survive! I fear League’s already been relegated to second class status. Not only has AFL taken over as the the national game in the past 10-15 year, but Union has also overtaken us, and soon soccer. It’s a real joke. David Gallop, you’ve done enough damage to our great game, kindly take the millions you’ve made out of it by selling the game out to your corporate mates, and walk off. It’s the best thing you can do. I reckon if you were to declare your earings over this time, it’ll easily superceed all our top players earnings put together, And you complain about SBW wanting to make a buck out of his talents to make a life for himself while he can and help his family out of poverty, which you would never know anything about! Didn’t you start all of this greed when you were a major player in destroying the game with the super league debacle!! you killed nearly 100 years of great history and tradition in one swoop. Changing team names, jerseys, and playing grounds with no respect for the fans, tradition or history to suit your news limited and other corporate mates. Changing the Grand Final from the great Sunday 3pm spectacle, to a night time TV extravaganza soley to please your big end of town sponsors whom you’re doing the bidding for. I wonder if you have to declare your earnings? I wonder what sort of cut you’ve got from all of this? You don’t have the games best interest at heart, you never did, actually I can’t even remember seeing you as a player? This is the road the likes of you took the game down, so how dare you talk about contractual certaintly now, you lying, good for nothing sell-out!!! you’re a joke! I’m a Bulldogs fans and unlike the select bonehead supporters the news limited media have closen to give voice I don’t hate SBW, I don’t blame him at all, I blame the club and the NRL. If you really looked after our game and our players, none of this would be happening. I call on all die heart league fans and all concerned ex players to rally together to rescue our great game!!!
There are several issues in the SBW employment relationship with his employer the Bulldogs. The principles of employment law must apply to any employment relationship. My understanding is that a fundamental principle is that no one can be forced to work for an employer if they no longer wish to. Yes the law requires notice to given and that there is a salary pay back to the employer if notice is not given . in reality it is not enforced as we all know that an unhappy employee is not good for your business. If I was unhappy and wanted to leave my employer is approachable and would work with me. So why do we allow league
organisations to own someone’s soul as it appears they are trying to do with SBW. If he doesn’t want to play league then he should be able to take up another career. If he becomes a surfing champion will he still be hounded?
It has been obvious that SBW has not been happy for some time. He was displaying signs of stress in that last game he played. I am sure if you revisit the game you will see it too. SBW is a young man who may need space to cope and survive. Being in the limelight all the time doesn’t allow for this.
So forget the contract and the money and spare a thought for what was so bad in his life that lead to his departure. Maybe the Bulldogs management were not tuned and responsive to his issues. The Bulldogs have had this young man since he was 14 years of age. To my mind he has been signalling for sometime that all was not well. He is a proud boy and may not have been able to ask for help. I say he has been poorly managed and while I love watching Sonny play, am devastated he will not play for the Kiwis and in the longer term come home as a Warrior I am also picking that he is a troubled young man. So get off his case and allow him to get his life back together. It is hard being a tall poppy especially when you have never had a chance to be a normal kid while growing up.