Shame on the NRL for not giving SBW his due at season launch
Date
March 5, 2013
Danny Weidler
Sport columnist
Forget Ben Barba and Johnathan Thurston as the faces of the game. Anyone who has read a paper or watched a TV in recent weeks knows Sonny Bill Williams is the main man, but the NRL didn't have the conviction to ask him to do the job - or to invite him to the launch of the season. If the AFL had had a similar returning star in its midst, he would have been front and centre of everything it was doing. Instead it was left to the Roosters to choose whether they wanted Sonny Bill at the launch. Naturally, they shielded him from the event. The NRL has been obstructionist throughout Williams' return. The insistence that he doesn't talk about rugby union or boxing has been made official in writing to the Roosters, underlining the point that Williams can't promote anything other than rugby league - the code the NRL banned him from for five years for looking after himself at a time when he wasn't being looked after. At the core of the NRL's issues was a handshake agreement Williams made with Channel Nine head David Gyngell. With Williams' marketability, playing ability and sex appeal, it was a no-brainer for Gyngell, and he made a deal with Williams to be connected to the network while he was an All Black. That's something that the NRL has trouble getting its heads around.
So true...........loving the Twitter replies!
