Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Warriors bidding for Sonny Bill Williams?


Contrary to various denials over the course of the week it appears that the Warriors are bidding for SBW - all bids must be in by Friday as this is the deadline for SBW to accept an A$1.5m three year offer tabled by the Bulldogs.

Notably Warriors CEO Wayne Scurrah has commented that finding the money to bid is not the issue due to the likely positive impact of SBW on gate takings - the issue is fitting SBW's inevitably massive salary under the cap. I also note Scurrah is saying that "there are no more salary cap skeletons in the closet" so lets hope he doesn't bend on his principles to try and sign SBW - the last thing this team needs is another points deduction for a breach.

And please god if they are bidding I hope they include a provision that SBW has to pass a physical prior to round 1 of every season in order to be paid his full salary and qualify under the cap. Presumably SBW's management and the Warriors could work out a way to insure the salary package such that if SBW was injured long term both he and the team would be compensated for his salary and the loss of gate takings. As much as I would love to see SBW in a Warriors uniform - this seems to me like a salary cap rort waiting to happen - unless Price gets ditched (and in fact the talk is that he will also be renewed if his body holds up) or Wiki takes a big pay cut I can't see how the numbers will work under the cap.

As part of a broader picture of where the Warriors are going in terms of player retention and management strategty - check out this article from the herald. Includes a useful list of players who will be off contract at the end of this year.

1 comment:

charlie chan said...

Sonny Bill is over rated! He sat out nearly all of last year's season, and if I remember rightly, he sat out much of the year before that as well.

Bring in Benji Marshall I say.