TENSIONS between the Bulldogs and their biggest star, Sonny Bill Williams, are set to escalate after club officials responded to suggestions he wanted out by declaring he was contracted for another four years and would be expected to see that out.

The development comes as another of the game's biggest names, St George Illawarra captain Mark Gasnier, moves closer to quitting the NRL out of frustration due largely - but not exclusively - to the collapse of third-party deals worth up to $1 million.

Williams has been making noises since the start of this season about playing rugby union, but until now no one has seriously bothered to ask why. He is the club's highest profile star, the one most capable of winning a game singlehandedly for his team, and a lure for opposition players to join the Bulldogs.

Yet it is understood that Williams, who has ambitions of captaining both the Bulldogs and the Kiwis, was never consulted about Steve Folkes's replacement as coach next season and is rarely asked his views on the way the team plays or any major issues at the club.

When incoming coach Kevin Moore recently met Melbourne and New Zealand prop Jeff Lima in a bid to convince him to join the Bulldogs next season, Reni Maitua and Ben Roberts joined them for dinner. The Herald revealed in 2005 that Williams had been offered the equivalent of $900,000 per season to join English Super League club St Helens but the then 19-year-old chose to stay loyal to the Bulldogs for less than half that amount.

Even now he is on just $400,000 per season after 12 months ago signing a five-year deal with the club he joined as a 15-year-old superstar in the making from Auckland.

One of the reasons Williams committed to such a long-term contract was his dislike for the negotiating process, but after the Bulldogs allowed Willie Mason to walk out of the club during the off-season he has begun to view things in a different light.

In interviews this season with the Herald and Channel Nine, he has talked about his willingness to be a spokesperson for the growing number of Polynesian players, but the Bulldogs, like most clubs, seem unsure of why he would feel the need to give them a stronger voice in the game.

Williams has also admitted that he would consider any offer to play for the All Blacks, as most New Zealanders would, but was savagely attacked by Bulldogs great and former chief executive Steve Mortimer, who is still involved with the club as a director of Canterbury Leagues club.

Bulldogs CEO Todd Greenberg yesterday declined to comment on specific issues that Williams is dissatisfied with, or whether the club would attempt to address them, but he responded to a Sun-Herald report, that the 22-year-old back-rower was considering seeking a release after attracting interest from big-spending European rugby union clubs, by pointing out that he is under contract until 2012.

"Sonny has got a contract with the club, he is only one year into a five-year deal and we would expect him to honour that contract," Greenberg said.

Gasnier is weighing up approaches from French rugby union and Perpignan-based Super League club Catalans after failing to receive about $350,000 from sponsors for deals negotiated as part of a package when he signed a five-year Dragons deal in 2006.

The sponsorships were separate from his playing contract and included a contra deal with Channel Nine in which advertising revenue bought to the network by Gasnier's manager, George Mimis, would be paid to the Test centre.

Gasnier is also believed to be unhappy that Australian players in the recent Centenary Test signed hundreds of heritage jerseys but do not receive any money for doing so, and were not told who would profit.

With his fiancee, Claudette, having family in France and being a keen traveller, Gasnier is seriously considering moving to France and has a get-out clause in his Dragons contract.

NRL chief executive David Gallop last night admitted the prospect of losing Williams and Gasnier was a concern, but said: "Of course we'd prefer them to stay but we will not be making any exceptions for them under the salary cap rules. That is not going to happen."