Bulldogs may sue Sonny Bill Williams
May 25, 2008
The Bulldogs have hinted they may sue Sonny Bill Williams and his manager Khoder Nasser over threats that the prominent Kiwi may walk away from the Bulldogs and the NRL after only 12 months of a 5 year agreement with the Belmore based club.
It seems a lot of the Sonny Bill Williams situation has arisen since his new manager Khoder Nasser (also the manager of boxer Anthony Mundine) has taken control of the SBW management.
You see previous manager Gavin Orr still retains a percentage payment every single year that Sonny Bill Williams remains with the Bulldogs. Many believe Nasser wants to ’scare’ the Bulldogs into a new agreement so they can not only secure SBW more money but ensure that Nasser and his management team receive ‘new’ percentage payments for being SBW’s management team.
Sonny Bill Williams NRL Movement?
April 28, 2008
Where would Sonny Bill Williams go?
Absolutely critical to the Bulldogs, SBW must be retained at all costs. What’s scary for the Bulldogs however – is with so many players and officials leaving the club, surely Sonny Bill won’t be as loyal next time round?
The biggest indication was when Willie Mason left the Bulldogs. Sonny Bill Williams said openly to Phil Gould on the Channel 9 NRL Footy Show – that he felt that loyalty was lost and players should firstly look after their family and future first.
Since the beginning of Rugby League, money and contracts have played a big part. Even in the early days when loyalty may have been slightly stronger, players still couldn’t resist the big carrots – things haven’t really changed all that much.
With coach Steve Folkes leaving the Bulldogs at the end of 2008, many players and officials already gone and now Reni Matuia wanting out – it certainly doesn’t seem like a happy home. Already NRL Results have been slipping for the Dogs, struggling to keep in touch during 2008.
No doubt Sonny Bill Williams will shop around hard when it’s time, who could blame him? But realistically can the Bulldogs afford to lose him? Losing SBW would consign the Dogs to being the next Canberra or South Sydney team – regularly losing and without the punch to win the big games.
Sonny Bill Williams faces New Zealand Warriors
April 11, 2008
Sonny Bill Williams lines up against his home country this weekend, with the Bulldogs facing the NZ Warriors in Round 5 of the 2008 NRL Premiership.
Being played in Auckland at Mt Smart Stadium the Dogs are coming off a heavy defeat by the Sydney Roosters last week. While beaten, the Bulldogs put up a strong effort and played in possibly the best style game of the weekend in Round 4.
The quality of the NRL hasn’t been ideal this year, however standouts have included the Melbourne Storm, Bulldogs and Sydney Roosters.
NZ Warriors mentor Ivan Cleary said there was only so much that enemy teams could do to try and stop Sonny Bill Williams.
a. avoid turning over possession so he didn’t get any extra opportunities to do damage. Another was maintaining defensive focus when the play went his way.
“With Sonny Bill you can’t stop everything he does,” Cleary said.
“It’s a matter of everyone being alive when he get the ball and doing their best.”
The Warriors are weary of the SBW factor, with the statistics killing them when facing Canterbury with Sonny Bill in toe.
They haven’t beaten the Bulldogs since the 22-year-old made his NRL debut four years ago.
Last year, SBW had a blinder against an understrength Warriors, who had winger Michael Crockett sent off after just five minutes for a high tackle.
SBW scored two tries and made two others as the Bulldogs romped to a 40-20 victory to maintain an unbeaten streak against the Warriors stretching back to 2003.
Coach Cleary also said he was surprised at criticism of the Bulldogs late last year that they didn’t play enough football and were too one-dimensional.
“They probably played more footy than any other team and a lot of it is stuff that’s really hard to stop,” he said.
“They just have dangers all across the field. They always have. You just have to be on your toes and ready for anything when you play against them.”
Cleary’s warning is backed up by statistics, with the Bulldogs leading the NRL this season in line breaks with 27.
One area of interest is how the Sydneysiders, who have brought in prop Justin Tsoulos for the injured Kane Cleal, respond to the announcement this week that long-time coach Steve Folkes will be leaving at the end of the season.
The Warriors have named an unchanged 17, with the only switch being second rower Logan Swann coming back into the starting line-up for youngster Sonny Fai.
They are looking to cash in on their second successive home fixture and maintain their unbeaten record at Mt Smart Stadium this year.
Last week, they downed Newcastle 26-20 in a remarkable reversal in fortunes after having had 50 points put past them in Manly in the previous round.
Cleary cited attitude as the key ingredient in the turnaround.
“I thought our attitude was really spot on,” he said.
“Our effort was great. There’s a few execution things we need to fix up, but all in all I was happy with the performance against a team that was going pretty well.”
The Warriors were aided by huge improvement in their completion rate – 86 per cent against the Knights compared with less than 50 per cent against the Sea Eagles.
It was the best completion rate Cleary could remember in his two and a bit years as club coach.
Sonny Bill Williams vs Willie Mason
April 8, 2008
It was a huge clash if you read the build-up in the Sydney Rugby League NRL media outlets, but the battle between former Bulldog Sonny Bill Williams and Willie Mason turned out to be a lot smaller than first anticipated.
While Sonny Bill Williams was a stand out for the Bulldogs, they couldn’t get the right NRL Results and went down to a vibrant Willie Mason who led the Sydney Roosters valiantly. The Bulldogs crowd were out of control and baying for blood as they were getting smacked around by the Bondi men.
Willie Mason bagging two tries and leading his team well, helped by Braith Anasta and Mitchell Pearce who guided their troops around well. Coach Steve Folkes has now announced his retirement at the end of the season and Bulldogs son Kevin Moore is expected to step into the head coach role.
Sonny Bill Williams back into Bulldogs team
March 25, 2008
The NRL Teams have been announced for Round 3, 2008 and lining up for the Bulldogs against the Wests Tigers is Sonny Bill Williams. Missing last week with a troublesome hamstring, SBW is set to be unleashed this week and will need to take the slack as team mate Reni Maitua has been dropped after Steve Folkes chose to dump him after a late night drinking session at Kings Cross.
The Bulldogs are 1 win from 2 starts and will want the best possible NRL Results early on in the season to keep things moving along.
Facing the Wests Tigers, this will be a big ask – as the Tigers are in great form and remain undefeated in 2008 even without superstar of Rugby League Benji Marshall.
No Sonny, Bulldogs win
March 21, 2008
Amazingly the Bulldogs have managed to get the right NRL Results in Round 2, 2008 even without star running forward Sonny Bill Williams. SBW was missing due to a knee complaint and the Bulldogs braved an early on-slought from Souths to finally come back and win 25-12 in a torrid encounter that saw the sides trade barbs either side of half time.
It seems in 2008 with the interchange reduced from 12 to 10 men, sides are finding the going tough and are struggling to keep fit troops on the field throughout the match, preferring to save the interchanges until the back end of the game.
The Bulldogs now reduce the pressure on the team and coach Steve Folkes with a win and for Souths it’s the opposite, as they remain winless in the 2008 NRL Rugby League season.
Sonny Bill Williams hurt in Round 1 2008 loss
March 17, 2008
Sonny Bill Williams and his Bulldogs came undone this weekend in their first NRL Rugby League hitout for 2008. After starting very strongly and having the Eels on the ropes at 20-0 the Dogs took the foot off the gas and the Eels ran in 28 unanswered points to defeat the Canterbury side in a thriller.
The turning point for the Bulldogs was early in the second half when Sonny Bill Williams took an injury away from a regulation tackle. SBW feeling the pinch when four eels chopped him down near the right fringe. The niggly injury saw Sonny struggle for much of the match and his passenger status gave the Eels the lift they needed and forced the Dogs to struggle in terms of mental strength and playing substitutions.
Coach Steve Folkes now gets himself into deeper water and will remain under pressure are the betting world and management teams at the Bulldogs whisper of backroom and boardroom fighting that might see Folkes pushed from his beloved club.
Reports on Sonny Bill Williams remain confident that the star has only suffered minor injury damage in the game that has already put the Dogs NRL Results for 2008 under more pressure.
Sonny Bill Williams; Bulldogs Captaincy?
March 6, 2008
With the departure of Willie Mason, Roy Asotasi and Mark O’Meley – SBW has quickly risen up the pecking order in terms of seniority at the Bulldogs.
While Andrew Ryan remains the firm first choice as club captain, Sonny Bill Williams has confirmed recently his desire to captain the Bulldogs in the future. Ryan is set to be around for a while yet, but the indication from SBW will warm the hearts of the Dogs fan who might have been worried that Sonny would head else where in the NRL or even Super League to get away from the dramas in Belmore.
The other interesting aspect for SBW is his general quite manner on the Rugby League field. Sure, he hits hard and plays out of his skin, but he rarely talks it up on the field and would probably lead purely by example rather than speech.
NRL Results will be critical this year for SBW and the Bulldogs, with coach Steve Folkes’ life on the line and that of the Bulldogs into the future. Reports day of new signings may help if they come off; with Israel Folau, Carl Webb and others being targetted by the Bulldogs.
Sonny Bill Williams; too much pressure says Folkes
February 27, 2008
STEVE Folkes concedes the Bulldogs have been too dependent on Sonny Bill Williams and has promised an attacking overhaul in 2008 to help salvage a season already mired in controversy.
Kick off can’t come soon enough for Folkes and his Bulldogs after one of the more turbulent off-seasons in recent NRL history.
The Dogs lost two of the game’s better props – Mark O’Meley and outspoken Willie Mason to fierce rivals Sydney Roosters – while a boardroom coup cost CEO Malcolm Noad his job and left Folkes in serious danger of not having his contract renewed beyond this season.
With premiership-winning halfback Brent Sherwin also released in the off-season, Folkes must find new spark in his attack despite losing three players who were so pivotal to their bulldozing style.
Guilty of relying too heavily on young superstar Williams in 2007, Folkes wants the lesser names to take ownership of the team.
Paging potential gamebreakers Ben Roberts, Willie Tonga, Daniel Holdsworth and Reni Maitua. That means you. No longer can players hide behind the proven ‘pass it to SBW’ game plan.
“Sonny can do some things that I’ve never seen other people do so he’s a very talented player for sure,” said Folkes.
“(But) we don’t want to make him the focal point, other guys have to take some responsibility as well.
“We don’t want to lump it all on his shoulders and I guess that’s what most of the stuff that surrounds the structure we’ve introduced is to take focus off him and share the workload with the ball and give ourselves a few more options than just going to him.
“I think we were ranked first in linebreaks (in 2007) but we were a little one dimensional and we sort of faltered at times on the opposition line.
“That’s why we introduced the structure. To give the ball players and ball carriers more options and try to move the defence around a little bit more.
“We certainly were inconsistent from week to week and from minute one to minute eighty a lot of the time.
“I think just the accountability of the structure that we have introduced will mean that if guys don’t play their role then we will be asking them why and if they haven’t got a suitable answer well then they might be spending some time with the reserve grade team.”
While the loss of Mason and co has resulted in the Bulldogs going from traditional pre-season favourites to underdogs, skipper Andrew Ryan said the squad were still confident of fighting for the title.
“We definitely want to be in the top eight to give it a shake,” said Ryan. “We think with the pre-season and squad we have we can definitely be a challenger for it.
“The main thing for us, as with every team, is consistency. We need to improve our home game percentage. Last year we were really good away but at home we were pretty poor.”
The Bulldogs will start 2008 with their first four matches at ANZ Stadium against Sydney clubs before travelling across the ditch to play New Zealand Warriors.
And Folkes has plenty of incentive for a quick start, told he has just seven weeks to prove he deserves another contract at the club.
“It’s a solid start with Parramatta, Souths, Wests and the Roosters,” said Folkes.
“We’ll certainly know how things are going after that. We want to jump out of the blocks nice and quick and just bring good form from the start, both to get some points on the board on the competition table but to also give us some confidence.
“I don’t expect what we’ve been doing to click immediately but that first month will certainly give us a fair idea of how we are going and where individuals are at.”
Sonny Bill pivotal to Bulldogs NRL results
February 9, 2008
With only a month to go until the Bulldogs face the Parramatta Eels in what should be a blockbuster NRL game, Sonny Bill Williams is reported to be well on track with training and condition for his assault on the 2008 NRL comp.
Completely over his injury concerns, Sonny Bill has made a point to stay out of the limelight and put his focus on pure conditioning for his big upcoming year.
As a senior player in the Bulldogs ranks now with Willie Mason and Mark O’Meley gone, NRL Results are hinging on Sonny Bill and his ability to guide the Bulldogs through tough times. Coach Steve Folkes knows the blow torch will be applied early on and he personally needs the Dogs to fire or it could be a disaster all round in 2008.