The Bulldogs sent out the invites, rolled out the red carpet … and then the host didn't turn up.

Sonny Bill Williams has been single-handedly carrying the hopes of Bulldogs fans on his shoulders all year and it was only a matter of time until his back packed it in. Unfortunately, the timing couldn't have been worse.

The Kiwi superstar succumbed to the lower back injury that almost prevented him from destroying the Broncos last weekend, just days after granting the whole Polynesian community free entry to watch him play.

There are plenty of seats at ANZ Stadium. Any promotion that gets more bums on those seats should be applauded. But the Williams initiative - letting in anyone with a New Zealand, Samoan, Tongan or Fijian passport for free - was panned when Williams was playing. So was it such a good idea to proceed when the star attraction was in doubt all week?

"I'd rather try something and fail rather than not try at all," Bulldogs chief executive Todd Greenberg told The Sun-Herald last night. "I thought he'd play. He was all right yesterday and trained OK. This morning he woke up and the doctor ruled him out. You don't want to muck around with a back injury."

Warriors captain Steve Price was a fan of the promotion. Sort of.

"It was a good promotion, but the club has put itself into a position where they will have to continue to do things like that because the loyal supporters felt a little bit upset by being left out," Price said.

"It was great, it was a smallish crowd and those people may not have come if they didn't get in for free."

Most of the 2893 people who filed in for free didn't know they weren't going to see their hero until Lee Te Maari ran out wearing the No.15 jersey in his place. While it took time for the word to spread among the fans, the news travelled quicker elsewhere.

About 10.30am yesterday, Williams was ruled out. Within 10 minutes, $80,000 was plonked on the Warriors. By the time TAB Sportsbet twigged something was up and suspended betting, the damage was done.

Perhaps it would be remiss of us not to mention what the players who did turn up got up to.

Just two minutes after kick-off, Sonny dived over in the corner … Warriors centre Sonny Fai, that is. That was one of six first-half tries for the Warriors. Most were the result of the Bulldogs' non-existent defence.

The Dogs made a better fist of it in the second half. When Reni Maitua spun through five defenders to touch down late in the game, what appeared to be a balls-up turned into a ball-tearer. But it was a former Bulldog who sealed the result, Price barging over with four minutes to go.

Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes believes there is more to his team than Sonny Bill Williams, although his players may need more convincing. "If you get told enough times that you're a one-man team, you start to believe it - and that's certainly not the case."