A Brisbane league franchise that doesn't have a ground, a name or a competition to play in, is in talks to sign All Black Sonny Bill Williams after the Rugby World Cup.
A new Brisbane team is set to be announced by the NRL later this year, joining the competition in 2013, and the franchise is already in talks with Khoder Nasser, the manager of Williams and Wallabies star Quade Cooper, the Sunday Telegraph reports.
According to reports the new team would pay up to $2m a season to secure the duo from rugby union.
Williams is contracted with the New Zealand Rugby Union until the end of the this season and can't play in the NRL until 2013 as he's still tied to the five year contract he signed with the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2008.
Cooper's contract with the Australian Rugby Union also expires at the end of 2011.
"We don't know whether we're in or not, but we have approached Quade and Sonny," Brisbane bid delegate Bill Rae told the newspaper.
"We want Quade and Sonny Bill to get their World Cup campaigns out of the way first, but once that is done we will up the ante for them.
"We've started talks with these guys and we want them on board. We believe we can offer them a great opportunity to potentially be part of history and obviously they would be the perfect recruits for us.
"We're being realistic about this. At the moment we don't have an NRL licence and the New Zealand Rugby Union [with whom Williams in contracted] will be hard to beat when it comes down to dollars. Because we don't have a history, we need some special talent to build the club from scratch and we'd love to see Quade and Sonny on our wall as the originals."
Nasser confirmed he has been approached by the Brisbane franchise and said the move back to league was an option for Williams.
"I can confirm that I have had an approach from the Brisbane bid team," Nasser said. "It's flattering that these people know who the cream of the crop are and want to bring the best of the best to their franchise.
"Of course [a return to league] is something Sonny will consider, he started his career playing rugby league.
"Quade has a phenomenal passing, running and kicking game and this is a guy who has got one metre to play with. It's been proven by many athletes, including Sonny, that if you are great in rugby league you can be successful in rugby and vice-versa."
With the Brisbane franchise expected to join the NRL in 2013, if Williams did sign with the side he would most likely be free to play rugby, or focus on boxing, during the 2012 season.
