Sonny isn't the sharpest knife in the draw. I can't believe he actually said "bus drivers don't have a salary cap", about the worst example he could've pulled, I wouldn't know where to begin on what a horrible example that is. Given SBW clearly isn't the most intelligent person his only gift in life is his RL/RU ability he's got to earn as much while he can, cause on the basis of that if he had to find another career it'd be for minimum wage.
I empathise a little with Sonny I'd bail on my job to earn twice as much too. Though I'd first tell my employer and colleagues. To be frank the NRL players are getting rooted by the NRL and News, on the 1 hand News completely screws the game to earn extra profits to boot the players earn a far lower percentage of the games revenue than athletes in other sports, added to that their sponsorship oppurtunities are severely limited.
As for the timing he clearly quit to coincide with the start of the French season. There was nothing spur of the moment or arbitrary about his sudden departure, the French contract deadline was the 14 July he left on the 26th if I'm not wrong, suggesting he signed 2 weeks before he left.
At best the Bulldogs can hope for damages they won't stop him playing rugby, they'll have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars dragging it through the courts and if and when they do win how will they get SBW to pay. He clearly decided several weeks ago to sign up and play in France you'd have to imagine that he wouldn't leave many if any assets in Australia. The juice isn't worth the squeeze.