Sonny Bill Williams: The strong, silent type SONNY Bill Williams barely told a soul he was leaving the day rugby league fell out of love with him. That Saturday of July 26, 2008, he hadn't whispered a syllable about the proverbial shitfight that was about to come down. Everyone he met that day, he hugged a little tighter, and said, "See you later" with a little too much meaning. Bulldogs chief executive Todd Greenberg lived just around the corner from Williams in the leafy Sydney suburb of Oatley then, and he'd bumped into his player at 7.30am. Looking at Sonny Bill Chief sports writer Daniel Lane looks at the career of Sonny Bill Williams PT3M14S http://www.smh.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2uzd2 620 349 October 4, 2013 - 11:53PM Greenberg and Williams' new manager, Khoder Nasser, had been at war for weeks over an upgraded contract. A move to French rugby club Toulon - the team coached by retired All Black Tana Umaga - had been speculated upon in the newspapers, but that morning Williams had given his boss no indication that he could actually be going there. Bulldogs fans, meanwhile, were expecting Williams to play against the Dragons on Monday night. Statuesque: Sonny Bill Williams . By mid-morning the phone started to ring. An NRL coach, who cannot be named, called this journalist. It was curious because coaches rarely give tip-offs about stories, let alone with a story this significant. "Sonny Bill Williams is flying out today," the coach said. Exit wounds: Sonny Bill hails a London cab at Heathrow Airport in 2008 after fleeing the Bulldogs to sign for Toulon. Photo: Wade Laube To where? To France. Really? Away from the circus: Williams relaxing at a cafe in Toulon in 2008. Photo: Penny Bradfield Calls to Nasser were met with denials. Sonny Bill was going nowhere. Mid-afternoon, the NRL coach phoned again. Mate, I am telling you, it's on. He is at the airport and he is leaving for France tonight. Another call to Nasser was met with a denial. 2GB broadcaster Ray Hadley was the first to break it when a caller claiming to be a customs official at Sydney International Airport phoned in to say Williams had just gone through to departures. By the time veteran newsreader Mike Munro fronted the 6pm bulletin on National Nine News, the cat wasn't so much out of the bag as on a flight to Europe. Good evening, but first the stunning news in rugby league. Sonny Bill Williams tonight walked out on the Bulldogs, telling no one where he is or his plans. As the Roosters prepare for Sunday night's grand final against Manly, Williams is keeping all of us guessing. Again. There's an unwritten directive at the Roosters that nobody raises the issue with Williams about whether he will be re-signing for next season. Not a word. It's an extraordinary edict usually reserved for a superstar whose name is LeBron, Beckham or Messi. Instead, it's for a rugby league player who polarises the code like no other player - with the possible exception, of course, his good friend Anthony Mundine. The Roosters have been conspicuous in their silence this week, and it highlights their paranoia around winning this match after managing to convert five grand final appearances into just one premiership since the turn of the century. There is a belief at Moore Park that the Roosters were too open to the public in 2010, when they succumbed to the Dragons in the second half of the grand final. They also saw stories about the Burgess brothers trotted out throughout the finals, only to fall last week in the preliminary final to the Sea Eagles, and are determined to control any hype. That paranoia has been running particularly strong with Williams. For months, Roosters management have been ramming numbers about increased membership and crowds since Williams' arrival. This grand final week, though, they want the press to ignore that he exists. Roosters coach Trent Robinson declined a request to speak for this story. So did chairman Nick Politis. Honouring a handshake agreement with Politis is why Williams is playing on Sunday, yet the player and Nasser continue to keep arguably the most powerful man in the game, whose personal wealth is conservatively valued at $380 million, hanging on the line. Politis is notorious for getting his way. He also has a reputation for his devotion to his players. Those who know him, though, consider Sonny Bill to be a blind spot. When his good friend James Packer signed a sponsorship deal with South Sydney earlier this year, Politis is said to have phoned him, gave him both barrels, and then finished the conversation with this: "You're out!" Politis will say that to the third richest person in the country. But he is not prepared to cajole Williams into making a decision about his future. It also reveals how much he wants him to stay. "We'd all love him to stay," says halfback Mitchell Pearce, "because we know how much of a better team we are with him." The clandestine manner in which Williams and Nasser sign one-year deals with various codes - now, with moneymaking boxing bouts tossed in - has exasperated rugby league's common man. It furthers a belief that Williams thinks he's bigger than the game. The easiest assumption to make about Williams is also the first misconception. Roosters players reported late last year they were shocked at Williams' distinct sense of humility. "When he first came to the club, before he had to go back to Japan [where he played rugby for the Panasonic Wild Knights], he had a notebook out and it showed that he was a full-on professional," Pearce says. It was refreshing to see a bloke there with a notepad. He has shown that through the whole season. There's no doubt that seeing someone switched on like that, the rest of us take note. He's almost made it cool to be like him. Williams' ineffaceable mark on Roosters' victories has been there for all to see; from a thunderous tackle to a line break or an offload, he has influenced more results than the rest of his teammates. In the times that he's played at first receiver, you can be assured he's drawing on whatever knowledge good friend, boxing buddy and Wallabies playmaker Quade Cooper has imparted. But what speaks more about Williams is what happened after his worst performance of the season. It came against the Gold Coast, who humbled the eventual minor premiers 30-22 at Allianz Stadium in round 25. After the match, Williams admitted to his teammates that he was to blame, because he had "overplayed my hand." Recalls Pearce: "It wasn't anything dramatic. But he was disappointed in that game. It shows the class player that he is. How Williams polled just 11 votes and was never in the running for the Dally Ms exposed a flaw in the judging system, but also an indifference from the pool of News Corp journalists, commentators and former players who judge the player of the year award. Andrew Johns is one of them, but surely he would've been surprised. Last Sunday morning, Johns oozed praise for Williams after his match-winning performance for the Roosters against the Knights in the preliminary. "This is what makes him special," Johns told this journalist. He is running out when he receives the ball, and then changes direction but does not lose any speed. Then there's nothing you can do to lock up the ball. He will get his right arm free and get the flick pass away. For a player that big, of that size, it's impossible to stop. I've never seen anything like him. A point worth noting: Johns is the halfback of the century, and arguably the best player that's ever been. We will know within three weeks if Williams will stay in rugby league, or sign with the Chiefs, the team he won a Super Rugby title with last year. That's when the Waikato franchise must name its squad for the next Super Rugby season. "We hope he comes our way," says Chiefs coach Dave Rennie. If he doesn't, we're confident we'll get him for 2015 for the World Cup. I'm not sure how much the grand final will influence his decision. I know how important it was for him to do well with the Roosters. He's an incredibly loyal man. The Australian media want to paint him as being disloyal because of how he left the Bulldogs, but he's spoken about why that happened. It was a tough decision for him to leave us, but he'd made a handshake agreement [with Politis]. That says a lot about his loyalty. I know he'll be torn. It's not easy for the big man. Another All Blacks jumper, and the appearance in the rugby sevens tournament at the Olympic Games in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, are two substantial incentives that will drag Williams away from rugby league again. Rennie says neither Williams nor Nasser have given him an indication what will transpire. Rennie sat down with Robinson earlier this year when the Chiefs played the Waratahs in Sydney, but both men left that meeting clueless about what Williams' future holds. While the unwritten directive around the Roosters has been to not mention contract negotiations with Williams, those close to him report he has not wanted to speak about it himself since the final State of Origin match, such is his focus on reaching the grand final. His life has been about rehabbing a niggling calf injury, as well as any other issue with his body. Such is his commitment to the Roosters. Rennie is not surprised when you raise this with him. "In his last contract with us, he was allowed to box in January and May, because he wasn't on massive money in rugby union," he said. After he fought in January, he decided he wouldn't box in May and focus on a championship with us. That's the character of the man. Rennie has watched from afar with understandable interest - "Oh, I've watched every game" - but also gives away enough clues into Williams' unseen charm. Playing alongside five-eighth Aaron Cruden, who is proven at finding space for his outside backs, Williams reveled in the 15-man game. He finished with more offloads than any other player in the Super Rugby competition. As he has been in the NRL, he was an off-loading machine. "He is a hell of a lot more than that," says Rennie. He had a massive influence on our success, but also on other people. He's a bloody good man. He was a massive influence on our young Polynesian players and how they recovered. It's a remark that corresponds with what he's achieved at the Roosters. Polynesian youngsters Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Daniel Tupou, and forward Frank-Paul Nuuausala are said to "worship" Williams. His close bond with then, it is understood, will make it harder for him to leave at the end of this year. "The media want to paint him as a superstar, but he's the opposite," Rennie continues. He's all about team, he's all about family. He's not chasing the limelight. He's got the patience of a saint. The Chiefs train at an open field, so anyone can come along. He would have time for anyone who approached him. As Bulldogs chief executive, Todd Greenberg was prepared to launch Supreme Court action against Williams when he fled to the other side of the world. This year, they're living around the corner from each other again. The irony: Greenberg is the man, in his new role as Head of Football at the NRL, who is working the angles to make sure Williams stays. "We'll do everything we can in the current rules to make sure that he stays," Greenberg says. He's matured incredibly since he's been away. He's come back a better athlete. And a much better person. We were all scarred by the way that he left [in 2008] - including Sonny. After the Roosters' 38-0 smash-up of the Bulldogs in round six, the pair spied each other, shook hands. The hatchet, in some sense, was buried. Don't expect it to be that friendly between Greenberg and Nasser, who holds a long-term grudge and tells others that Williams' departure was because Greenberg underrated the footballer's importance to the Bulldogs organisation. Asked if the NRL should throw the chequebook at Williams to ensure he stays, Greenberg says this: "You don't throw a chequebook at anyone. That's disrespectful to that person, too. I'm sure Sonny's motivations are significantly more than commercial. Ultimately, it will come down to what's best for Sonny. We need to respect that it's his decision. That clashes heavily with the NRL's position late last year, when it seemingly tried to block Williams' signing because of salary cap concerns. Sweeping reforms to the salary cap currently being discussed won't help keep Williams next year, but the Roosters can sign as many third-party agreements as they want. A long-term deal, though, won't happen. There's a conspiracy that Williams agreed to join the Roosters the moment he left the Bulldogs five years ago, but that contradicts with the fact that Politis had been pushing for a long-term deal instead of just the one-year contracts Nasser prefers his clients to sign. Williams signed a one-year deal with the Chiefs last year. "That means he's going to have to front and perform," says Rennie. If he gets injured, he's got nothing to fall back on. All the pressure's on him. Politis' thinking was about Williams' legacy. How will he be remembered? "It's easy to sensationalise these things, but there's no doubt now that he's one of the greats to play the game," says Pearce. A great athlete, no doubt. But longevity is what determines greatness. Sonny Bill Williams has never hung around long enough for us to find that out.