What I know about NRL could be written on the back of a computer chip. In texta.
But since a lack of comprehensive knowledge about a subject has never precluded me from forming an opinion, I’m going to weigh in on Sonny Bill Williams’ defection from Australian rugby league to French rugby union.
From what I can understand, the NRL salary cap limits what SBW can earn in Australia. In France, he can earn $3m. So he’s going to France to earn $3m.
And today, his lawyers have said if he’s forced to come back to Australia, he will be challenging the NRL in court over the salary cap, claiming it is a restraint of trade.
Which it does seem to be.
Surely, we should reward merit and talent. If the guy is such a great
player (which I assume he is otherwise no-one would care that he’s
bailed out of his Bulldogs contract), shouldn’t he be allowed to profit
from that? Be paid what he’s worth?
Imagine if someone said to Meryl Streep "sorry Meryl, but you can only
earn the same amount for your films as Tara Reid because we’re trying
to keep costs down in Hollywood. No matter that you are a truly great
actress and a powerful drawcard for audiences. Gotta think of the
industry as a whole!"
Isn’t that what the NRL are doing with the salary cap? Does SBW really owe it to his country or his club to put the welfare of the NRL above his ability to make a buck out of his talent?
I’m sure there will be some highly informed commenters who will inform us beyond my very basic knowledge on this subject. Although at the end of the day, it’s sport. With a ball. Why aren’t doctors and nurses and social workers offered mega-bucks to do what they do?
Comments
10 Comments so far
I don’t know very much about this particular issue, however, I DO know that NRL clubs don’t seem to have any problem “cancelling” particular contracts with players when it suits them, yet when a players wants to cancel his contract with a club everybody gets worked up about it.
Contracts these days are not worth the paper they’re written on.
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The reason for the salary cap is like the AFL one – it’s so clubs with more cash to spend aren’t disadvantaged by being able to get better players, by throwing money at them. The salary cap means that, in theory, all clubs are created equally in terms of players (although this is never the case). For example, a cashed-up club like Collingwood couldn’t pay each of their big stars millions of dollars to stay with the Pies, whereas a struggling club like North would struggle to pay their players half of that to keep them there.
I do think it’s sad though – you really should be rewarded for talent, although maybe this is actually the best thing for them. Since when is your success only measured by money, anyway? At some point you have to say $20 million for a movie is excessive, so why not draw the same boundaries in sport?
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The NRL needs a salary cap of some sort. Otherwise, the richer clubs, or those owned by rich people (ie, the Rabbitohs) would have all the top players. However, if we want to stop our players going to Europe to play where they can earn big – well, bigger – money, then something needs to be changed.
I don’t have a problem with players who leave to make more money – for example, like Mark Gasnier who is going to France. Some fans carry on about club loyalty. But somehow I doubt that, if your average person was on $70 000 a year and had the opportunity to go somewhere where they would earn $100 000, they would decline because of loyalty to the company. Why should it be any different for league players, just because they’re high profile and on higher salaries? They do earn heaps here – but we shouldn’t begrudge them the opportunity to make more. It’s the NRL that needs to change, they can’t exapect to keep the star players when they could earn millions overseas.
However, I do have a problem with what Sonny Bill has done. I don’t think the NRL’s problem is so much that he left to earn more money. And the difference between him and Mark Gasnier is that Gasnier did it the right way. He signed up with a new club, told his current club, and will stay out the rest of the season. Sonny Bill, on the other hand, has walked out in the middle of a five-year (and very lucrative) contract, without telling anyone – not his coach, not the club CEO, and, most importantly, not his teammates. He walked out without telling anyone two days before his team was due to play (as a sidenote, they were beaten 30-0). He let down his team, and that is a dirty thing to do in any industry. And he let down the fans.
The other reason the Bulldogs have to be angry is that the money they spent to keep Sonny Bill could have potentially been spent to buy, or keep, other good players. The Bulldogs aren’t in a great position – with Sonny Bill, they’re a one man team.
I appreciate Sonny Bill’s desire to earn more money. He’s a great player, and if he can make more money out of that, good on him. And at times, I have felt sorry for him – the amount of media that has been focused on this one young man can’t have been easy. From what I’ve seen of him in interviews, he has seemed like a reasonably sensible young man – I disagree with a lot of his opinions, but he has done a lot of good work. It’s the way in which he has done this that I disagree with – for the past few months, he has been very vocal about some dissatisfaction of his, and this seems a very childish reaction, ‘I’m throwing my bike in the bushes and running away because I didn’t get my own way’.
What he has done is unprofessional and immature, and should be punished. When he signed that contract, he was already a star. And it’s been known for a long time that football stars make more money overseas. If he thought he would rather play over there before the five years was up, he shouldn’t have signed the contract. I hope the Bulldogs succeed in getting their injunction – he has, after all, left them completely high and dry.
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In response to Em.
The conditions have not changed since he signed the contract, and the NRL do have the marquee player option.
I dont begrudge any player for wanting to earn more money overseas, hes 22 and his career will likely end by the time he is 30. However, dont sign a 5 year deal if you think you may want out in a years time.
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I have 2 reasons to support Sonny Bill:
1. As Emma said, his career length is limited, and thus I appreciate that he wants to make as much money as he can now while he is on form.
2. The conditions under which he signed his contract have changed.
The A-League (soccer) has a salary cap system which includes an exception for a single marquee player on each team. This means that all teams play at a similar level, and the select few brilliant sports-people who deserve to be paid more can be. I don’t see why this system can’t be implemented in league.
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It’s really hard to make an intelligent comment about this, because, well, it’s just really hard to make an intelligent comment when you’re looking at that torso!
It’s also hard to take anything about Sonny Bill seriously, because of his name. That is so a cowboy’s name! At the very least, it’s a good ‘Walton’s name: “Goodnight John Boy. Goodnight Jim Bob. Goodnight Sonny Bill”. Am I right?
I’m also NRL illiterate.But it seems the worst thing he’s (attempted) to do is break his contract, and that happens. It happens in sport, entertainment, big business – hell, it happens in marriage! People enter into agreements in good faith, and later on change their minds, and decide to go another way. I guess elite athletes only have a relatively small window of opportunity to play at the highest level (and make the most money), and I can understand why they would want to seriously consider all opportunities and experiences that come their way. Often, it’s as much about the challenge as the money.
Isn’t this what Tatiana Grigorieva did, when she defected to Australia to compete as an Australian? And then defected from sport, to ‘Gladiators’? But that’s a whole other thing. The point is, she wouldn’t have had that opportunity if she hadn’t defected. Come to think of it, isn’t it also what Kostya Tszyu did, when he defected to Australia from Russia to box for this country? Then to ‘Dancing with The Stars’? No-one has a problem when athletes detect TO Australia, to play for ‘our side’.
If he breaks his contract, he’ll have to pay – fair enough. It’ll cost him, and in that way, he will be punished. But should he be villified? The media reports make it sound like he’s a ‘wanted’ man, with bounty hunters after him. Next stop – Guantanemo Bay!
The club’s angry, the fan’s angry, his team mates are angry (this is how we express our love for our athletes – with anger) – it must be pretty overwhelming to live with that sort of pressure, Everyone loves you – as long as you play for us. And win.
It’ll be interesting to see how this all pans out, if he’s ‘forced’ (we can force people to come home and play sport now?) to come back, and challenges this legally. I just hope it doesn’t take months to resolve – like Brendan Fevola’s contract sideshow – that’s dragging on like bloody ‘War and Peace’! Just. Do. ANYTHING, Brendan!
I probably won’t be paying attention, especially if there’s a shot of his abs underneath the headline. Goodnight, Sonny Bill!
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I think for football players it is sad that they have to go overseas to earn big $$$, because it’s not a career they can keep at until they are a senior – it’s quite short lived. And while they’ve spent their youth playing footy they havn’t always had the chance to develop a career path for when they leave the game (not all of them can work on tv after they retire – thank goodness) so they don’t always end up with good jobs after football; meaning they need to maxamise their earnings whil they can.
BUT – i thought the point of the salary cap was to make sure the clubs with more $$$ to spend don’t get all the good players while the clubs that may be struggling financially get the leftovers. The salary cap is often breached by the clubs with more $$$ anyway; plus those clubs can afford to put in a bid for the best coaches etc so the salary cap is just trying to make rugby league a level playing field, so for that I tend to agree with it (even though the team I support has some $$$ – it would be better for my team if the salary cap was gone – but I think about what is better for Aussie rugby league).
Also – I agree with Lauren – what SBW has done deserves to be punished.
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Yep, I agree with Lauren.
Another reason he appears to be copping it quite badly in the press is because, he was quite vocal when another player left one club to go to another (I think it was Willy Mason) questioning players ‘loyalties’ and has now secretly made a deal for himself without being up front about it – a bit hypocritical i reckon.
You do a raise an interesting point Mia re: people’s right to their professional earnings. It just makes me sad though, as it will definitely impact the game if our players keep getting lured away overseas. Currently the English rugby league has so many foreign players (lots and lots of Aussies), they struggle to find a decent national team to play internationally.
I also argue regularly with my partner about the incredibly ridiculous amounts of money profressional sportmen ( I say only men coz the amounts of money women in sport is not comparable – except for ‘beauties’ like Sharipova etc) get compared to people who make a difference to people’s lives – but what can we do? It’s a corporate world.
I really liked it better without superleague where local players worked their way up to first grade, and players ultimate goal was to play for their country – not get a 3million dollar contract.
That’s why I love State of Origin football the most, players still get excited about being picked for their State and you can see their passion. (and also Im a Queenslander and we win all the time he he he)
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Not the most professional thing to do no matter what the circumstances are. I sure hope it’s worth it in the long run. Money isn’t everything,Sonny Bill.
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The reason people are making such a big deal about this is because he broke a contract and left mid season without telling his team mates. People sign with overseas teams all the time in the NRL, however Sonny Bill was 1 year into a 5 year deal. If his contract was running out it wouldnt be such a big deal. If it were you or I breaking an agreement we would be punished, he should be no different.
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