Sonny Bill Williams ... set to face Canterbury, the club he walked out on five years ago. Source: Mark Evans / News Limited
For Sonny Bill Williams, it's been an unbelievable journey from the moment he walked out on Canterbury-Bankstown midway through the 2008 season, to his return to the NRL with Sydney Roosters this year.
And on Friday night the story will be given a sense of closure as a player who was once worshipped by Bulldogs fans, finally faces up to the turmoil he caused when he left.
It won't come through an apology, as many of the Belmore faithful think they deserve.
But when Sonny Bill runs out for the Roosters against his old club, the people who felt betrayed will have a free shot at pouring as much scorn as they like on a man wearing a jersey they love to hate.
It's a moment that you would have struggled to believe would ever arrive when the precociously talented Kiwi first took the back door out of the country to take up a forbidden contract with French rugby club Toulon.
Call him pig-headed or single-minded but Williams is no fool, he knew how much he'd hurt the game of rugby league and in particular Bulldogs fans, although he's always had difficulty acknowledging it.
After he left, Williams made an appearance on Channel Nine's The Sunday Footy Show to explain his actions, but rather than contrition, Sonny Bill displayed contempt.
Contempt for the personal nature of the criticism he'd copped and contempt for the rules in place that he believed trapped players in contracts that were too heavily weighted in favour of clubs and against players.
"I stood up for myself and I stood up for player rights, so people who call me a coward, who are sitting behind their desk or sitting wherever - come to my face and say it," Sonny Bill said defiantly during his interview on The Sunday Footy Show.
"Let's not be stupid here, what I took, it's not a coward act, it's a ballsy act."
The defiance continued as he not only played but conquered rugby union, moving back to his home country of New Zealand to win a Rugby World Cup with the All Blacks and a Super Rugby title with the Chiefs.
He has never apologised to the Bulldogs for walking out on them and when he speaks about it he still displays few signs of regret.
But it's hard to argue Sonny Bill hasn't matured along the way - his signing with the Roosters coming as much due to his apparent respect for a handshake agreement with Nick Politis as it did for his desire to find redemption in the code that was his first love.
In many ways his return was a lose-lose scenario, with fans going to great lengths to show him they hadn't forgotten his betrayal and a five year absence making dominance of the NRL a seemingly impossible task.
But he loves that kind of adversity.
"A lot of people are going to be writing me off," Sonny Bill said at his Roosters signing press conference.
"There's some great players and some really good young players coming through. And I think when I step on that field there's going to be a target on me."
That proved to be the case when Sam Burgess lined him up and steamrolled him soon after he came on off the bench in his first game for the Roosters in round one.
But if the Rabbitohs game felt like a baptism of fire, it was nothing compared to what's to come on Friday night.
After five long years it's finally the night when the man faces his demons and the heaving blue and white mass in the stands get the chance to make the playing arena feel like hell on earth.
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