NZ Warriors and Canterbury in for Hastings

[morley pie eater]

This will be up to him. I hope he does as he did at Salford and does two years here.
Quality player, hope we can keep him.

A main reason he gave for staying at Salford was his relationship with fans and community. Let's hope he doesn't read this forum, eh?

[ddtftf]

Lockers is now only interested in money not the welfare of the team do the honorable thing and retire don't spoil your history of a great player for a greedy one

[jobo]

Lockers is now only interested in money not the welfare of the team do the honorable thing and retire don't spoil your history of a great player for a greedy one

Doubt that's the case. If he was only interested in money, he'd have been off to Aus years ago and made a bucket load.

Think it might be a Gareth Ellis situation whereby he takes a coaching role but is available if needed, to play.

[josie andrews]

Lockers is now only interested in money not the welfare of the team do the honorable thing and retire don't spoil your history of a great player for a greedy one

Don’t think so!

[Lazy J]

Hastings to NZ, Bateman to Wigan according to Fox News, to be announced later in the week

[nathan_rugby]

Lockers is now only interested in money not the welfare of the team do the honorable thing and retire don't spoil your history of a great player for a greedy one

Don’t think so!

Agreed, time to call it a day. Commanding too much wage and him sticking around has halted finding a replacement. We used to talk about Joel Tomkins being the replacement, then Bateman and now that he has hung around for so long Smithies has came up from the academy.

Injury record, games per year, game time and unfortunately impact are all diminishing.

The money spent on his wages would be better spent elsewhere.

[bertina]

Hastings to NZ, Bateman to Wigan according to Fox News, to be announced later in the week

Certainly don’t want that swap.
Best half in SL Hastings.
Don’t get me wrong I like JB, but these shoulder injuries are a real concern, especially the way he plays the game.
Great player or not, we should have learned our lesson signing back former players carrying bad knocks.
Sam Tomkins and Moose to mention 2.

[Wiganer Ted]

Then there was the rumour that Wigan had expressed an interest in Benji Marshall.

As soon as that was mentioned it seemed to me that Hastings had indicated he was a bit undecided but might leave as he'd had good offers from NRL clubs. He has the release clause so there's nothing untoward about him leaving. Wigan, IL & KR as they should, were looking for a replacement.

If it is the case that Hastings leaves with Benji Marshall as his half back replacement it would be very ok with me. We have a great replacement for Tommy in Harry Smith and also Smithies taking Lockers' place together with Bateman in the 2021 squad would be just about as good as we can expect whether in the current circumstances or not.

IL and KR have to present a financial plan to supporters and when they do that it would be a good move to be able to announce star signings at the same time.

[nathan_rugby]

Hastings to NZ, Bateman to Wigan according to Fox News, to be announced later in the week

Certainly don’t want that swap.
Best half in SL Hastings.
Don’t get me wrong I like JB, but these shoulder injuries are a real concern, especially the way he plays the game.
Great player or not, we should have learned our lesson signing back former players carrying bad knocks.
Sam Tomkins and Moose to mention 2.

Burgess injury record has been terrible also

[AndyNick]

If Bateman is coming back (which is looking likely) It will be on a marquee deal which means that one of Hastings or George Burgess will be off. When the season kicks in I think we'll see a lot more of Harry Smith being given exposure with a view to him taking the 7 jersey next season