Zak Hardaker

[jobo]

Regarding the commuting, he told me he was living in Wigan during the week & going back to his missus & child after the game on whichever day it was played for the weekend.

If he’s moaning about not seeing his family everyday he needs to have a bloody good look at the overseas players & ask them how they cope?

There is the technology for him to “FaceTime” or whatever it is, during the day or night, okay it’s not the same as physically being there but bloodyhell it’s not forever!

Maybe if he hadn’t give Sam Tomkins a head butt they wouldn’t have been thrown out of Joel Tomkin’s house
& maybe would have been given an opportunity to find other suitable accommodation.

I’m fuming here! It’s only up the blasted M62 for God’s sake he’s not travelling the length of the country or having to travel abroad on a daily basis.

Trouble is, he’s under’t thumb!

She laid the law down as soon as she had the baby that she wanted to move back to Yorkshire to be closer to family, fair enough. But it was just as easy for her family to travel to her daily if that was what was needed while still living here for the remainder of his contract. That’s my opinion anyway!

And in reply to.. forgot who posted it now about Wigan NOT saving his career, they did just that because no other club would touch him.

He was toxic & even sh*t on Wigan just before he was due to start by going on a drunken drive without insurance!

After all the help & sending him to the Priory or wherever it was to help sort his addiction & destructive nature he has a lot of payback to Wigan.

I’m sorry it has ended this way but no player is bigger that the club.

That’s my rant on the subject. So don’t any one bother to pull it to pieces or whatever. Thank you

under't thumb. I bet he is and all.

[DaveO]

It was me who said about him not owing the club anything special and i stand by it my reasons are this

Wigan didnt "save" Zak on some humanitarian basis or noble quest - Wigan saw an opportunity to get a man of steel quality player cheaper because he was coming with baggage and lots of it. Now at that point Wigan know what they are getting and why they are getting it and the slate is wiped clean. Wigan may have done a lot to help Zak and thats commendable but all Zak owes wigan is to uphold his contract as a player and give his all for the club - same as any other player IMO

Now you could argue that he hasnt done that at the end but hes had 61 appearances for us and been 7/10 player or above every week IMO

I know plenty will disagree with that but at the end of the day Wigan took an opportunity they've done pretty well out of it IMO for me the biggest failing on both parties is no sorting this naturally at the end of last season

I think you are being ridiculous.

Of course Wigan saw an opportunity (I thought it was a bit desperate at the time myself) and took a risk but to do so they had to invest time and effort in the player and as a result of that Hardaker's career was rescued. You are only looking at one half of the equation and he'd be nowhere without Wigan's efforts so I think you are being ridiculous to suggest he owes Wigan nothing and the fact he actually has a career isn't something he should be grateful for.

I was going to be made redundant once and my manager at the time went out of his way to find me another position in the company. Do you think I wasn't grateful for that and just thought OK then, I won't put myself out going forward because all I had to do according to my contract was work 9-5? Or even better, I could from then on decide to turn up late regularly and do so without batting an eye?

Hardaker was also given another chance by Wigan and it doesn't matter if that was opportunistic on Wigan's part. And yes you can argue he hasn't even done the equivalent of 9-5 because his failure to do so is why he's been sacked. All he had to do was turn up and see his contract out but he couldn't even do that so I think the club itself and fans are more than entitled to feel he has let them down.

If anything good comes from this Wigan will have learned a lesson to leave problem players who have gone off the rails well alone not matter how good that are.

[DaveO]

In his first interview on Wigan TV when Matt Peet first got the job he categorically stated that the club only wanted players who would give 100% commitment to the club. He said that they had already looked at players to sign but realised they would not fit into the new culture as they had issues off the field. He has stuck to his word what ever happened with Zak to release him as he would not be a part of the club.
Whatever we think of Matt as a coach for me he is doing the right thing albeit we will be a player short .
I know from other forums Matt is getting a lot of respect from other supporters apart from Wigan on the way he conducts himself in the media .

So in that case Wigan would never have signed Hardaker if Peet had been coach and Peet is inadvertently slagging off the Rads and IL for bringing him to the club in the first place.

Call me cynical but if when Rads and IL wanted to take a punt on Hardaker if Peet had been the coach back then he'd have fallen into line.

[Charriots Offiah]

Regarding the commuting, he told me he was living in Wigan during the week & going back to his missus & child after the game on whichever day it was played for the weekend.

If he’s moaning about not seeing his family everyday he needs to have a bloody good look at the overseas players & ask them how they cope?

There is the technology for him to “FaceTime” or whatever it is, during the day or night, okay it’s not the same as physically being there but bloodyhell it’s not forever!

Maybe if he hadn’t give Sam Tomkins a head butt they wouldn’t have been thrown out of Joel Tomkin’s house
& maybe would have been given an opportunity to find other suitable accommodation.

I’m fuming here! It’s only up the blasted M62 for God’s sake he’s not travelling the length of the country or having to travel abroad on a daily basis.

Trouble is, he’s under’t thumb!

She laid the law down as soon as she had the baby that she wanted to move back to Yorkshire to be closer to family, fair enough. But it was just as easy for her family to travel to her daily if that was what was needed while still living here for the remainder of his contract. That’s my opinion anyway!

And in reply to.. forgot who posted it now about Wigan NOT saving his career, they did just that because no other club would touch him.

He was toxic & even sh*t on Wigan just before he was due to start by going on a drunken drive without insurance!

After all the help & sending him to the Priory or wherever it was to help sort his addiction & destructive nature he has a lot of payback to Wigan.

I’m sorry it has ended this way but no player is bigger that the club.

That’s my rant on the subject. So don’t any one bother to pull it to pieces or whatever. Thank you

You are right Josie he was living in Wigan so even more bizarre that he couldn’t turn up for training on time!

[moto748]

Point is, that was then, and this is now. Peet wants to put his stamp on the squad as Head Coach, and good for him.

[Charriots Offiah]

It was me who said about him not owing the club anything special and i stand by it my reasons are this

Wigan didnt "save" Zak on some humanitarian basis or noble quest - Wigan saw an opportunity to get a man of steel quality player cheaper because he was coming with baggage and lots of it. Now at that point Wigan know what they are getting and why they are getting it and the slate is wiped clean. Wigan may have done a lot to help Zak and thats commendable but all Zak owes wigan is to uphold his contract as a player and give his all for the club - same as any other player IMO

Now you could argue that he hasnt done that at the end but hes had 61 appearances for us and been 7/10 player or above every week IMO

I know plenty will disagree with that but at the end of the day Wigan took an opportunity they've done pretty well out of it IMO for me the biggest failing on both parties is no sorting this naturally at the end of last season

I think you are being ridiculous.

Of course Wigan saw an opportunity (I thought it was a bit desperate at the time myself) and took a risk but to do so they had to invest time and effort in the player and as a result of that Hardaker's career was rescued. You are only looking at one half of the equation and he'd be nowhere without Wigan's efforts so I think you are being ridiculous to suggest he owes Wigan nothing and the fact he actually has a career isn't something he should be grateful for.

I was going to be made redundant once and my manager at the time went out of his way to find me another position in the company. Do you think I wasn't grateful for that and just thought OK then, I won't put myself out going forward because all I had to do according to my contract was work 9-5? Or even better, I could from then on decide to turn up late regularly and do so without batting an eye?

Hardaker was also given another chance by Wigan and it doesn't matter if that was opportunistic on Wigan's part. And yes you can argue he hasn't even done the equivalent of 9-5 because his failure to do so is why he's been sacked. All he had to do was turn up and see his contract out but he couldn't even do that so I think the club itself and fans are more than entitled to feel he has let them down.

If anything good comes from this Wigan will have learned a lesson to leave problem players who have gone off the rails well alone not matter how good that are.

His behaviour is even more bizarre given he was 80 mins away from a Challenge Cup Final.

[Charriots Offiah]

Looking on a Leeds Rhinos forum, they are stating we have sacked Zak, have we sacked him or is it more of a mutual consent thing?

Doesn't seem like many Rhinos fans are keen on him and equally consider him a risk/liability! Could well be Fev under Brian Mac!

Sacked mate.

[KR15]

Any evidence to back up he has been disruptive off the field? because as far as i know he's not been in any bother since playing for Wigan and seemed well liked. He is also better than average highlighte by the fact hes been playing out of position and still turning in decent performances

My guess is this playing up now was simply to force wigans hand with the added guess something is lined up for him. Wrong way to go about things yes but from the outside Hastings looked far more disruptive than Zak and no one seemed to dislike him

I didn’t like him! He only came to us to heighten his chance of getting back to the NRL

He was arrogant & wasn’t enamoured with the Wigan club or fans as he was with the Salford club & fans, without who, his career would still be pants!

I didn't like him either. Incredibly arrogant and acted as though he was owed something from the world. I also found him disrespectful to us on several occasions. He acted like he didn't want to come and play for us and did so begrudgingly.

[KR15]

Regarding the commuting, he told me he was living in Wigan during the week & going back to his missus & child after the game on whichever day it was played for the weekend.

If he’s moaning about not seeing his family everyday he needs to have a bloody good look at the overseas players & ask them how they cope?

There is the technology for him to “FaceTime” or whatever it is, during the day or night, okay it’s not the same as physically being there but bloodyhell it’s not forever!

Maybe if he hadn’t give Sam Tomkins a head butt they wouldn’t have been thrown out of Joel Tomkin’s house
& maybe would have been given an opportunity to find other suitable accommodation.

I’m fuming here! It’s only up the blasted M62 for God’s sake he’s not travelling the length of the country or having to travel abroad on a daily basis.

Trouble is, he’s under’t thumb!

She laid the law down as soon as she had the baby that she wanted to move back to Yorkshire to be closer to family, fair enough. But it was just as easy for her family to travel to her daily if that was what was needed while still living here for the remainder of his contract. That’s my opinion anyway!

And in reply to.. forgot who posted it now about Wigan NOT saving his career, they did just that because no other club would touch him.

He was toxic & even sh*t on Wigan just before he was due to start by going on a drunken drive without insurance!

After all the help & sending him to the Priory or wherever it was to help sort his addiction & destructive nature he has a lot of payback to Wigan.

I’m sorry it has ended this way but no player is bigger that the club.

That’s my rant on the subject. So don’t any one bother to pull it to pieces or whatever. Thank you

Absolutely spot on.

As for the commute, it's not like they're working 9-5. They train for a few hours and finish early. Most of them are regularly posting in coffee shops or having downtime mid afternoon. He could be home in an hour or so... Lots of people commute, and it was only for a few more months. It wasn't forever. I had a horrible commute when at uni and on placement, but I sucked it up cos I knew it was only for 3 years!

[w.thomas]

Decent player but liked I’ve said before, bit of a tit and that won’t ever change. Solid at centre but a better fullback. Nailed on he will be at Leeds very shortly. I hope we sign an out and out Centre but knowing Wigan we will shove a second row there or continue with bibby who’s not a very good centre. I hope I’m wrong