Williams must carry heavy load
Wolfpack will need to keep star on the field for the sake of wins, revenue
The Toronto Wolfpack’s coaching staff can’t afford to loadmanage Sonny Bill Williams in 2020.
As a first-year Super League club, they won’t rest their best players for the playoffs. To reach the post-season they’ll need all of their talent on the field, especially the 34-year-old Williams, the most famous and expensive signing in the club’s history. And Wolfpack ownership can’t afford to load-manage their new superstar, either, considering the size of audience he figures to attract. Where the Wolfpack’s Instagram following is approaching 43,000, Williams has nearly one million. Many of those followers would watch Williams play anything, from Scrabble to the lottery. But for the Wolfpack to monetize his reported $9-million contract, and for Williams to maximize the ownership stake he assumed upon signing, the club will need those followers to watch him play with the Wolfpack.
The long-time New Zealand All Blacks star is a player-ambassador, but the emphasis remains on “player,” even as Williams enters the late stages of his career. Rugby league TV host and marketing analyst Alex Simmons estimates Williams’ presence will add 1,000 spectators at every road game next season, giving the entire Super League a financial interest in keeping him on the field.
“He brings an X-factor and a level brand that the game has never seen in this country,” said Simmons, who hosts Rugby AM. “His arrival will transform the whole appeal of the sport in the U.K. It’s that big a deal.”
Any business plan built on the long-term health of a 34-yearold playing a collision sport is riddled with potential pitfalls. A torn Achilles tendon suffered at the 2016 Olympics sidelined Williams for seven months, and other injuries have limited his playing time with his club team in New Zealand.
Wolfpack head coach Brian McDermott isn’t worried. He points out that last season the club leaned heavily on 35-yearold Jon Wilkin, who sat out only two games in a season that stretched from February to October. But Williams pushes the stakes significantly higher.
While Wilkin is a tough and workmanlike player with a following among rugby league diehards, Williams represents a chance to spread Super League’s popularity beyond the string of mid-sized cities in northern England forming the sport’s heartland. Wilkin moves the needle in Leeds, but Williams can focus the southern hemisphere’s attention on Super League while potentially attracting the attention of mainstream fans here in Toronto.
All of this is unfolding as the Wolfpack look to boost average attendance from roughly 7,000 per game to more than 8,000. And it’s happening as Super League enters negotiations for a broadcast contract set to start in 2021. Simmons says Williams’ steady presence could help land Super League’s first North American broadcast deal.
“Toronto is the most important brand in our sport right now,” Simmons said.
Keeping all those stakeholders moving toward those goals depends on the Wolfpack’s strength and conditioning staff, who are tasked with keeping Williams as fit and injury-free as Super League’s marathon season permits. In that sense, McDermott says he’s less concerned with Williams’ chronological age than the player’s habits, and the staff’s programming. “What’s 34 nowadays?” McDermott said. “When I played, 34 was old because we used to train too hard, and we never had the diet and resources behind us … I don’t worry about (Williams) any more than I’d worry about a 25-yearold. The age bit has more to do with who you are and what sort of life you lead.”
Last week the club introduced Williams to reporters in London, the location a reflection of the magnitude of the moment. Rugby league has an inconsistent presence in London, where it trails soccer and rugby union in prominence. But Williams, a two-time World Cup champ with the New Zealand All Blacks, has profile wherever any version of the sport is popular, and attracts attention even outside rugby league hot zones.
For his part, Williams stresses that he’s not in Toronto for a two-year, $9-million victory lap.
“I’m grateful and blessed for this opportunity, but I understand what I’m coming into,” Williams told reporters. “As a sportsman, what better pressure environment would you want to test yourself?” Apparently, it’s not just talk. Thursday morning, the Telegraph reported that Williams has travelled to Australia for an intensive, month-long solo training camp before joining the Wolfpack in late December. The goal according to Keegan Smith, Williams’ personal strength coach, isn’t just to maintain Williams’ performance. It’s to improve it, even at 34 with a long season looming.
“We know what Sonny’s capable of, and we want to go beyond that,” Smith told the Telegraph. “That’s why he’s still playing … We want to see how far we can go with Sonny, take him to another level.”
McDermott says preparation is key.
He acknowledges Williams’ far-reaching personal brand was a factor in his signing, but says boosting the Wolfpack’s profile still depends on winning, which in turn depends on keeping Williams on the field to do the unglamorous things that lead to success.
“He understands there are some moments where he’s just got to get mucky and dirty with the guys,” McDermott said. “Make a tackle or carry the ball, even (if ) there are circumstances where he comes off worse. That’s how you win a game of rugby league sometimes.”