KEY POINTS:
Loyalty has once again proved to be a meaningless world in today's sport.
Injury-prone Sonny Bill Williams signed a five-year deal with the Bulldogs in 2006 but is now looking elsewhere.
Willie Mason exhorted his teammates to stay with the Bulldogs for lower pay than that on offer elsewhere so they could stay within the salary cap, then promptly left for a bigger offer at the Roosters.
Coach Graham Murray took the Cowboys to their first grandfinal but has been forced to walk the plank.
It seems contracts signed these days are not worth the paper they're written on. Out-clauses can be found at will when deemed necessary.
Williams' public airing of dissent will do nothing to aid the Bulldogs' chances in the NRL this season. And talk that he's ready to run to rugby for more pay won't aid the Dogs in their stated intention of building a team around SBW and of attracting marquee players.
The 22-year-old Kiwi does not have any offer from union. But, talking on The Footy Show, which screened here last night, Williams said he'd go if the money was big enough.
"I'm a sportsman and I definitely see it as a challenge, the whole rugby union thing. It's also about opportunity and I see rugby as an opportunity. If I did decide to do that, there would be a lot of goals I could try to achieve."
Then came a slightly unbelievable bit - is this big-headedness or just the distorted view of youth? - "I've achieved a lot in rugby league ... "
Pardon.
He has played just 71 games over four-and-a-half seasons and has appeared in seven test matches, mostly losses to Australia.
"I definitely don't think I'm bigger than the game," he continued. "But I think I have a right to do what's best for me and my family. Say a guy earning $80,000 a year is offered $200,000 a year, what's he going to do?
"Is he going to weigh up the situation? It's just the same for me."
Not quite. You already had the big offer, mulled it over, then signed a five-year deal that is just 18 months old.
So the Bulldogs' fans who buy tickets and jerseys, the sponsors who pay the wages, the club management that backed him when he was sidelined and busted for drink-driving and urinating in the street - they all get the middle finger.
Williams denied he was unhappy about assistant Kevin Moore taking over from head coach Steve Folkes next year but said there were "a few issues that I need to sort out at the club. I don't want to delve too far into it because that would be disrespectful to the players".
Meanwhile, Trent Barrett is trying to get out of his contract at Wigan to shift to the Dragons, just as Dragons centre Mark Gasnier is crying foul, over added sponsor deals that haven't come through, and wants out.
Gasnier, signed to a long-term contract that curiously has an annual end-of-season get-out clause, said he is considering a move to rugby in France.
"It's a situation that I've been dealt that I have to react to."
So the Dragons' coaching stocks are about to improve with the move of Wayne Bennett from Brisbane, but the team captain and star player wants out.
No wonder the NRL is losing ground to rugby and AFL in Sydney.
There were dire warnings from NRL boss David Gallop and Souths part-owner Peter Holmes a Court this week about where league is heading. Gallop predicted that Sydney clubs would fold, that the city could not continue to support nine teams.
A new 40 per cent tax on pokie machine profits has already led to the St George Leagues Club cutting its grant to the Dragons by A$2 million. Penrith, Parramatta and the Roosters face similar cutbacks.
And the pokie take continues to shrink, April's income down 17 per cent from a year previously, as anti-smoking laws bite.
Cronulla has long been on financial knife edge. Manly and Souths survive because they have business backers with deep pockets.
But Holmes a Court has signalled he's pulling out soon and said Souths needs 4000 new members to stay afloat.
The degree of loyalty Sonny Bill Williams, Mark Gasnier and others are showing league fans appears likely to be returned in falling attendances, with television fees and sponsorship dollars sure to follow any downward trend.