But the fact is a potentially legendary league career is going to waste with the ruck-and-maul brigade.
For all the flashes of class, SBW often looks lost in rugby, particularly as he can't unleash the instinctive shoulder charges which fire his game.
There is also the confusing and distracting business of his boxing career, which is at odds with what was supposedly his burning World Cup and All Black ambitions. Fighting opponents such as a crooner with tennis elbow seemed like small change compared with dedicating himself to chasing a place in the All Blacks, yet SBW continues to invest small.
His heart doesn't seem to be in a game he is reported to find boring.
There is absolutely no confusion over which code suits him best. His history, skills, psyche and remarkable physique are built for the upright, open-field and gladiatorial business of league rather than rugby, where referees constantly check the angles as players forage about in dark and tangled places.
SBW might try to do his bit around the rucks and mauls but only, you suspect, under sufferance. Mucking about on the ground and doing unseen work for the cause doesn't look like the preferred option for a bloke who would rather dabble in vaudeville boxing than be primed for every rugby training.
SBW is like a lot of modern league players out of Sydney who don't have an old-style commitment to any particular cause. Just as the clubs shuffle players around under the salary cap system, the guys themselves also play the field while enjoying the trappings of Sydney life. A leading league identity suggested to me a few years ago that the Sydney set - where a teenage SBW was schooled - are more concerned about clothing labels than which club they play for.
The latest predictions are that SBW will sign a five-year deal with the Sydney Roosters. This is rather ironic as it would mean returning to the same city and sort of long-term deal that supposedly angered him to the point he did a mid-season midnight runner from the Bulldogs nearly four years ago.
He would be going back to the very world he ran away from, except he'll be getting a lot more money this time. Having tried rugby in the vastness of Europe, and then down here in snoozeville, being the big fish in an overly familiar but exciting pond like Sydney might not be so bad after all.
Sonny Bill mixes extreme ability and marketability with injury and lack-of-commitment drawbacks. He is a sporting gun-for-hire who will ride off into the sunset with the job half-done.
He is capable of doing amazing things for his new club and for the game of league itself - his profile is so big that I wouldn't be surprised if there are attempts at finding ways to get the ex-Kiwi into the State of Origin series.
But whether he can knuckle down, set standards the way players such as Darren Lockyer have done for their clubs, and help turn the Roosters into a title-winning team, is a very different matter.
Whatever he does, it will be fascinating to watch. And as disgraceful as his conduct at the Bulldogs was, you can't hold a grudge forever. Sonny Bill Williams the league player is a magnificent sight, and it would be terrific to see him back in the game he was meant to play.
Especially if it means a return to the Kiwis.
