Biggest names in sport hanging out at one little cafe tests the neck muscles Sonny Bill Williams greets Israel Folau as their training sessions overlapped at Moore Park. IT'S early March and youre sitting at a table outside that little café near the pool at the Sydney Football Stadium. Its called Azure, although no one seems to use the name. You know the place. Cut athletes from the various clubs who play in the precinct - Roosters, Tahs, Swans, Sydney FCers. Flabby businessmen who think they are rocking their budgie smugglers but are really just putting people off their bircher muesli. It's a great place to test the cool of a sports fan. To see who looks up first when the fullback who scored the winning try at the weekend strolls past. Over there, a Roosters coach is huddling with an out-of-form star. In a quiet corner, a Tahs prop and his agent are negotiating with some club suits. In the pool, the Swans work out corked thighs. But you keep your gaze fixed doggedly on the iPad screen. You're not impressed that easily. Or you never used to be. Now, as Moore Park becomes the epicentre of a city's star struck fascination, whiplash might replace strained hamstrings as the No.1 injury at the SFS. Whether it is coincidental, or a consequence of Sydney's love for the big, the bold and the controversial, the four most prominent names in their footballing codes now train and play within a few hundred metres of each other. A test for even the most aloof, too-cool-for-autographs observer. How long before their heads go . . . SNAP: Yes, that is Sonny Bill Williams at the corner table. Just like he was in August with his agent Khoder Nasser and the Roosters" heavy-hitter Nick Politis. Sorting out the details of a contract no one believed he would sign. Lance Franklin with Alessandro Del Piero. No, SBW doesn't have horns and a tail. No, he is not sitting by himself and lighting a cigar with $100 notes. He's surrounded by the young teammates he helped inspire. Laughing, leading and on the lookout for rubber snakes. Yes, Williams" transitory nature means will never own the place. But where it takes some players an entire career to become part of club lore, SBW might have done that by simply extending his one-year lease. It still sits uneasily. A sport bending to the will of an athlete. But it also adds to the fascination. More so that SBW delivers like few others. SNAP: Noooo, that can't be Alessandro Del Piero chatting with Frank Farina. Not that little guy with the pasta gut and the six o'clock shadow. That is Del Piero? The centre of global fascination. The man who, on reputation alone, could buy and sell all the local talent doing business in the autumnal sunshine? Yet, somehow, Del Piero's modest appearance makes him even more formidable. A Ferrari motor in a VW Beetle's body fuelled by rigatoni and double espresso. And, delightfully, no sleeve tattoo. Del Piero doesn't look up. To him, the champion five-eighth at the next table could be a forklift driver. But everyone looks at him. The one true international superstar. There's no table service here, but the staff bring out his coffee. Pronto. SNAP: Israel Folau is sipping a smoothie. He listens intently and nods as his teammates talk. Maybe he's pretending to understand the scrum rules. But that innocent, wide-eyed expression never leaves his face. Folau is a bit leaner than you remembered - the AFL fitness guys stripped the puppy fat from him. But more self-confident back in a world where the rules might be complex, but the tacklers and spoilers don't attack from behind. Sucking on a straw, Folau's ability belies his personality. Rushing at even the mighty All Blacks defence he looks like a colossus. In the company of his teammates he seems demure. The Tahs have a bit more star power now Kurtley Beale has signed on. Although he's running late. Is James O'Connor in town? But neither Beale, O'Connor, Quade Cooper or any of the other underachieving Wallabies can hold a candle to Folau. For now, the game doesn't respect them. It is starting to fear Izzy. So we gawp, too. SNAP: They don't play the theme from Jaws. But you can hear it in your head. Buddy Franklin has just got out of the pool. He towels himself off and strides across the deck. Actually he struts. He swaggers. But - - annoyingly to those of us born with the charisma of a slightly retiring earth worm - he does it without a hint of self-consciousness. Franklin is not the best player in his game. Last season he was not in the best 30. But he is a one-man highlights reel. A performer whose best moments can transcend the contest. Everything about Franklin seems larger than life. And, right now, you have to be a very big name to make heads turn in Moore Park. SBW, Delpo, Izzy and Buddy. All on the same block. No wonder no one noticed David Warner leaving the indoor nets.