​Fact Check: Paul Gallen's Latest Sledge On Sonny Bill Williams

When NSW Origin enforcer and Cronulla Sharks premiership winning captain, Paul Gallen, promised to knock Sonny Bill Williams out during an interview on Sunday it was pretty typical pre-fight banter.

"He's finally come out in the last month or so and said he's willing to do it. I will knock Sonny Bill out," Gallen said on the Nine Network.

Their bout, which has been tentatively scheduled for the end of the season - should both survive without injury - will be the pinnacle of this new fad of putting professional footballers in the ring.

When Gallen went a step further and called out SBW for the easy run he's had since he was a kid, he was either exaggerating or making a grave miscalculation of rugby league culture.

"Sonny has had everything go his way since he's been 14-years-old. Contracts go his way, that's the problem at the moment is we're trying to negotiate but they want it all their way," Gallen said, adding: "I bring as much to this party as Sonny does."

It might have been Gallen's privilege speaking, having made his way through the game as a relative unknown in the early days, but in the dick-swinging, gladiatorial madness of rugby league there's only one thing having a big name at a young age guarantees: a long line of incredibly terrifying meatheads queueing up for the chance to take your head off and make a name for themselves. This was more true for SBW than any player in recent memory.

Growing up playing the game in Sydney, as I did, you heard about SBW long before you saw him. As a teenager he was famous and infamous in equal measure in the footballing underground; famous for his preternatural footballing ability and infamous for never backing down from anyone. Like the time he took on and knocked out the scariest man in the South-East, Joe Falamaka, during a wild sideline brawl at Redfern Oval in a Jersey Flegg (under 20s) fixture between Canterbury and South Sydney (You can watch the wild scenes, here).

With both SBW and Falamaka sent from the field, a square-up takes place on the sideline. The Tongan rips his jersey off and charges 30 meters bare-chested to confront SBW, who shimmies the shoulder as if to set-up a big right but instead hits Falamaka with an ingenious almost invisible short-left, which sits him down.

This was long before SBW became the proficient pugilist he is today but even then his incredible knack for timing, precision and composure in the most volatile of scenarios were obvious. Carrying a name as big as SBW has for as long as he has, makes you wonder how many Falamakas he's had to confront. One thing's for sure, it hasn't been easy to get this far and you'd be a brave or stupid man to say it has.