 |  |  | |
 | |||
 | |||
 | |||
 | |||
Williams, Sonny Bill |
  Sonny Bill WILLIAMS [Player Stats] + Submit additional information or a correction to this player 
Where is David Gallop? Fri July 18, 2008 by Matthew O'Neill The Bulldogs introduce a positive initiative to bring in more spectators only to be shot down, the game is losing players and money by the truckload and in all of this our esteemed NRL boss has remained silent. Where is David Gallop? The News Limited publications have absolutely hammered the Bulldogs for their Polynesian promotion in enticing more spectators to their home clash against the New Zealand Warriors. News Limited are 50% owners in our game, although the way the News Limited journalists carry on you would think they are investors in destroying the code. Gallop should be actively supporting and lauding such an initiative, but he has inconspicuously silence on the topic. One has to wonder if this is because he is fearful of rocking the boat against the News Limited tidal wave. Is this the kind of behaviour we want from the leader of our great game? Earlier in the week the NRL lost Mark Gasnier to the lucrative dollars in France and never at any stage has Gallop investigated ideas of ensuring that our next generation of stars remains in the NRL for the long-term and not use the NRL as a breeding ground for overseas competitions. Roy Masters from the Fairfax publication Sydney Morning Herald yesterday revealed that Rugby League fills 64 of the top 100 Pay TV spots - including 42 in the top 50 - well ahead of the AFL with 23 spots in the top 100. Yet the NRL badly under-valued it's worth on the television box despite it being common knowledge that Rugby League is the sport best suited to the television viewer. Click here to read Masters article The AFL gets the prime Pay TV sports slot on Fox Sports 1 and their product is flooded across the Pay TV sets. They have made little headway in eating into Rugby League's market share. Despite this, the AFL continues to get the cream and the pudding whereas the NRL gets in the crumbs in comparison. Rugby League still wins the ratings. Gallop made comments recently that the AFL has teams in all five major capital cities, but he neglects a few facts. Sydney and Brisbane are two of Australia's three largest cities and the TV market is geared towards Australia's three largest cities. New South Wales and Queensland between them has more than 50% of Australia's population. There is also a substantial part of the population base not counted as "capital city" that Rugby League wins in. These are primarily the Central Coast, South Coast/Illawarra and Hunter/Newcastle regions in NSW, all of the ACT, and the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and North Queensland regions in QLD. These regions combined are almost as populace as Adelaide and Perth! Additionally, there is no rule that says a capital city must have a team in the code to be worthy of a decent free-to-air TV slot ? something that Rugby League doesn't get in three of our capital cities. We haven't even mentioned the popularity the NRL enjoys on the TV sets throughout New Zealand. When the TV and Radio rights came up for renewal a few years ago, it was essentially a closed shop. Rival bidders were not sought, despite rivals submitting unsolicited bids for the rights. This insular approach has ensured the NRL has failed to maximise the games' full potential and full reach. rleague.com exclusively revealed a further example of this insular approach last year, the NRL's bungled the internet and mobile rights deal with Telstra. As the NRL's CEO, Gallop has to accept accountability for the declining crowds, the shortfall in TV and sponsorship revenue and players' leaving the NRL for better financial deals before their time is up. One club trying to reverse the trend of declining crowds is the Bulldogs, yet they haven't received one bit of support from Mr Gallop and the NRL. Here we have a club putting forward an idea and a promotion to bring in the crowds and take the fight forward for the NRL and Rugby League - only to be ridiculed by one half of the NRL's owners. With the World Cup coming up in October and November the support from the Polynesian community is going to be crucial with teams from Tonga, Samoa and Fiji competing in the 10-team tournament. The Polynesian population in Australia is booming and is a goldmine for the NRL, and clubs such as the Bulldogs have the opportunity to cash in upon this. Saturday's promotion by the Bulldogs against the Warriors is one of a number of initiatives they are going to bring in for their home games. It would be easy in theory to throw open the gates for all people under the age of 16, but it won't have the same outcome. The Bulldogs know they needed to target an audience and playing against the Warriors this weekend is a perfect opportunity to easily tap into the booming Polynesian market. The driving force behind the promotion is Sonny Bill Williams, a player from a Polynesian background, the highest profile player in the NRL today and the best the Bulldogs have had since the legendary Terry Lamb. Williams has been courted by French RU Club Toulon in recent weeks and this initiative shows his commitment to promoting the Bulldogs and encouraging the Polynesian community to support Rugby League and the Bulldogs. The NRL can't afford to lose Williams when he is off contract in four years time and the big one for the NRL comes up in 2010 when Greg Inglis is off contract. One can only wonder if Inglis and his management timed his end of contract to fit in nicely with Australia's 2011 RU World Cup campaign. The games' leadership must be proactive and not sit on their collective hands. As current leader, Mr Gallop has to explore ways of bringing the NRL more revenue, more promotion and more forward positive thinking ideas to keep our prized players in the game. In recent weeks, I believe question marks have surfaced around whether Mr Gallop is the man to take the NRL forward into the future. Some may say, with good reason, that he's run his race and his services should be terminated sooner rather than later. Personally, I think Rugby League is the best sport and the best product in Australia, but is being run and ruined by people who couldn't organise a p**s up in a brewery! Click here to read Bulldogs editorial and statement Sonny day for Bulldogs Mon July 14, 2008 by Matthew O'Neill Sonny Bill Williams showed why he is in the very top tree of Rugby League players yesterday with a dominant display as the Bulldogs upset the Broncos 26-18 at Suncorp Stadium. In front of 37,683 fans Williams bounced back from a difficult year with niggling injuries and change of management to produce a display that makes him worthy as the most valuable player in the game today. Broncos coach Wayne Bennett after the match said of Williams, "He was outstanding. No one probably tried much harder than he did all day. He was on the right side of the field, left side of the field, he was everywhere. He played himself into the ground." Williams has been a one-man band for the Bulldogs this season when he's been on the field and his value to the Bulldogs is highlighted by that they only average 10 points per game when he isn't playing compared to their overall average of 19 points for the season. The Bulldogs prior to yesterday had been in dreadful and embarrassing form losing eight out of nine matches with their only victory being against the highly placed Sharks, which Williams was the star of the show that night. Their previous three matches included a 40-point hammering by nortorious away strugglers Canberra, a comfortable loss against Newtown and surrending an 18-point lead against the lowly placed Souths to place the Bulldogs firmly in wooden spoon contention and no hope in sight until yesterday. Williams needed support around him and yesterday the Bulldogs as a group stood tall and played with more attacking structure and used the value of Williams wisely. Michael Ennis opened the scoring for the Broncos with an early penalty goal, but the Bulldogs scored the opening try when Arana Taumata showed excellent footwork and vision in a fine individual try from 30m out. Hazem El Masri converted from the sideline to push the Bulldogs out to a 6-2 lead. Peter Wallace leveled up the scores when he scored in the 20th minute and Ennis converted to put the Broncos up 8-6. El Masri put the Bulldogs level with a penalty goal in the 32nd minute and the scores remained that way until the half-time break. The Bulldogs are nortorious poor starters in the second half, but yesterday changed that with a great start scoring two tries in the opening seven minutes. Daniel Holdsworth scored in the 43rd minute when he sliced through two defenders and showed great control when tackled just short of the line to use his momentum to get himself over the line. El Masri again converted from outwide to put the Bulldogs up 14-8. Williams ran a great inside ball four minutes later and was too strong for Karmichael Hunt as he crashed his way over for a sensational try. El Masri was again online was the Bulldogs raced to a 20-8 lead. Signs of choking as they've done in recent weeks began to tell in the Bulldogs outfit with tries to Ennis in the 54th minute and Sam Thaiday in the 68th minute put the Broncos right back into the match. Ennis converted his own try, but wasn't able to convert the Thaiday try and that moment kept the Bulldogs in the match. Heka Nanai scored a crucial try for the Bulldogs in the 76th minute following good ball movement from Holdsworth and Ben Roberts saw Nanai crash over in the corner. El Masri needed to convert to seal victory and his kicking form was back to his vintage best landing an absolute bottler as the stunned Broncos crowd walked out disappointed. Williams was deservedly man of the match in just about most people's eyes and his stamp on the match was highlighted by Bennett's comments that he was everywhere. Another player to standout was John Kite in just his second top grade match. Kite came off the bench and made a tremendous impact showing excellent promise for the future. Kite has come up through the development systems at the Bulldogs playing all his junior football with locally based clubs St George Dragons (Clemton Park) and St Johns Eagles. Brent Crisp has added stability to the Bulldogs fullback position since Luke Patten's career threatening injury, Roberts found form being used as an interchange hooker and Reni Maitua enjoyed one of his finest games of the season. It's been a difficult time for Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes, who has been an outstanding stalwart as a player, trainer and coach since 1977 with the exception of the 1990 season. Folkes is in his final season and the Bulldogs are going through their leanest year since 1964, which unfortunately is not the ideal way that a player of Folkes' standing at Canterbury deserves to be remembered. However, Folkes unfortunately deserved criticism as the Bulldogs attack lacked structure, selections left a lot to be desired and he launched a stinging attack on supporters for their support of Toyota Cup sensation Ben Barba referring to them as 'niff nuffs'. Yesterday though, the Bulldogs looked structured in attack and the balance of their side is slowly getting to be ideally shaped. Folkes after the match said, "It's been really difficult for everyone at the club. Obviously, the expectation is that we're successful, and that hasn't been happening. It's just a real good reward for the players, because they've been turning up every day and working really hard. I'm really proud of the way they played against a pretty good side." Meanwhile, the Bulldogs made it a fine day in Brisbane winning the Toyota Cup clash 33-16. Barba again enjoyed a fine match scoring two tries, four goals and one drop goal for a total of 17 points to push his season tally to 220 points from 16 matches - including 25 tries. Barba continues to impress and must be close to an NRL opportunity should form, injury or circumstances arise for his chance. LIVE SCORES & STATS NRL: Broncos 18 v Bulldogs 26 NYC: Broncos 16 v Bulldogs 32 Broncos v Bulldogs Discussion Thread
|
Privacy Policy | Legals | Terminology | Credits Recommended Screen Resolution 1024 x 768 or higher | All times are Australian Eastern time unless otherwise specified
Rleague.com PTY LTD, operated by Rugby League fans James Stewart (Content, Technical development and implementation), Matthew O'Neill (Content) & Chris Riediger (Content)
Rleague powered by Referee whistle pees
Rleague.com PTY LTD, operated by Rugby League fans James Stewart (Content, Technical development and implementation), Matthew O'Neill (Content) & Chris Riediger (Content)
Rleague powered by Referee whistle pees