The Sonny Bill Williams saga has taken another astonishing twist with the Bulldogs defector insisting his decision to walk away from rugby league was "common sense".
Williams, who officially signed with French rugby club Toulon on Tuesday, insisted he has acted selflessly, and that his defection is "about the boys getting a fair go."
The 23-year-old Kiwi international says the NRL salary cap is crippling rugby league and the players aren’t getting a fair go.
"Hopefully some good can come out of what I've done... and it wakes everyone up and they realise that something needs to be done," Williams told Channel Nine.
"If a lawyer, if a teacher, it a bus driver is on $40,000 and they get offered a lot more money to go everywhere else...what are they going to do?
"Are they going to change bus companies?
"Or are they going to sit there and say 'oh, all these people want to me to stay here because I'm the best bus driver'?
"It's just common sense."
Williams turned his back on the Bulldogs less than one season into his $400,000 a season contract when he boarded a plane for France a fortnight ago.
His shock departure has sparked outrage amongst Australia's rugby league fraternity, with disillusioned fans in the dark about the cause for his sensational code-switch.
But Williams says it's not about him.
"What I've done has shown it's just not about me. It's about the boys getting a fair go."
"It's about them having the balls to stand up for themselves and get what they should be getting.
"If we're getting treated like that... why can't we treat the clubs like that?
"I just want to see the game and the players looked after the way they should be."
Williams then hit out at NRL CEO David Gallop, who has slammed Williams' defection and has backed the Bulldogs' legal efforts to gain an injunction preventing him playing in France.
"The crowds don't turn up to watch David Gallop play. They crowds don't turn up to see the CEO's play. They turn up to watch the players play."
