Club Statement: Gabriel Hamlin

[fozzieskem]

So in a nutshell Rads is saying the club is powerless to prevent players being idiots and doing drugs in their own time?

I can’t say I agree. Plenty of sports clubs across pro sport insist on a certain level of off field behaviour when the athletes are on their own time including bans on excessive drinking (or drinking at all at certain times) never mind taking drugs.

Sure even with such bans you can’t stop idiots being idiots but you can put in place a set of rules that make it clear if you break them your liable to be fired. This is not a lack of duty of care, it’s part of it i.e. it’s part of preventing players doing this in the first place because you make it plain if they go that way they are probably out the door.

As it stands it sounds like the club leaves it up to external bodies such as UKAD or enforce the rules and impose sanctions.

Can’t disagree with any of that

[Caboosegg]

You can't stop people doing what they want in their own time, you cannot hold the employeer accountable for employee actions outside of work.

What you could do is make it so that while a season is underway the player count as representing the club and are liable for their actions.

Aka if you caught during the season your going through a club disaplinary as you have created negative publicity regarding the club.

What players do outside of a season is down to their own stupidity or not. Same as an employer is not accountable for your actions outside work.

[No straw damn us]

So in a nutshell Rads is saying the club is powerless to prevent players being idiots and doing drugs in their own time?

I can’t say I agree. Plenty of sports clubs across pro sport insist on a certain level of off field behaviour when the athletes are on their own time including bans on excessive drinking (or drinking at all at certain times) never mind taking drugs.

Sure even with such bans you can’t stop idiots being idiots but you can put in place a set of rules that make it clear if you break them your liable to be fired. This is not a lack of duty of care, it’s part of it i.e. it’s part of preventing players doing this in the first place because you make it plain if they go that way they are probably out the door.

As it stands it sounds like the club leaves it up to external bodies such as UKAD or enforce the rules and impose sanctions.

What would you do Dave?

[ancientnloyal]

If people take drugs in my line of work (outside of work) and it is in the public domain or public knowledge that they work for us, we have the power to go down the disciplinary route and eventual sacking citing bringing the company name into disrepute. In extreme cases can request a drug test. It’s in our alcohol and drug policy. Luckily I’ve not sacked anyone for it but image is everything.

Can’t even smoke/vape outside of works premises.

Wigan should sack.

[DaveO]

So in a nutshell Rads is saying the club is powerless to prevent players being idiots and doing drugs in their own time?

I can’t say I agree. Plenty of sports clubs across pro sport insist on a certain level of off field behaviour when the athletes are on their own time including bans on excessive drinking (or drinking at all at certain times) never mind taking drugs.

Sure even with such bans you can’t stop idiots being idiots but you can put in place a set of rules that make it clear if you break them your liable to be fired. This is not a lack of duty of care, it’s part of it i.e. it’s part of preventing players doing this in the first place because you make it plain if they go that way they are probably out the door.

As it stands it sounds like the club leaves it up to external bodies such as UKAD or enforce the rules and impose sanctions.

What would you do Dave?

What I have been saying in this thread. I’d have regular testing in place as part of the performance regime and I’d have a set of rules in place about how players are expected to look after themselves.

Those rules would be incompatible with excessive alcohol intake and obviously would preclude drug use. The sanctions that would be applicable could have a range of severity e.g. loss of wages or being dropped if excess alcohol is found all the way to dismissal for drug abuse or persistent offences.

I don’t think any of that is new or revolutionary. I can remember as a kid hearing top soccer players getting hauled mover the coals for being out drinking and not observing a curfew.

There are also plenty of other professions where you simply cannot turn up for work even with a severe hangover never mind having taken drugs so such measures as I suggest are not draconian nor would they be unique.

If players think life as an Wigan RL player is being out on the town several nights a week and that the club is OK with that and thinks it is powerless to change such a culture if one were to exist, I think all this talk of the Wigan Way is a load of flannel.

[endoman]

IIRC each test costs around £6-700, and UKAD only have so many testers sadly. I've personally been tested and you are supervised by officers from UKAD from the instant you are notified of a test until the sample is produced. It's labour intensive. Totally agree that we should test more, and out of competition, but there are practical limits.

[Superb Chops]

I don’t think any of that is new or revolutionary. I can remember as a kid hearing top soccer players getting hauled mover the coals for being out drinking and not observing a curfew.

It's not that long ago that a Wigan coach turfed out Gleeson while also punishing other players who tried to hide the centre's drunken state at training.

Back in the early 90s at Manchester United, Ferguson had managed to not only get rid of the drinkers, but also had built up a network of reliable contacts - so good he once drove up to Blackpool to confront the likes of Sharpe and Giggs at a late night house party.

In short, discipline can be done right.

[Mike]

So in a nutshell Rads is saying the club is powerless to prevent players being idiots and doing drugs in their own time?

I can’t say I agree. Plenty of sports clubs across pro sport insist on a certain level of off field behaviour when the athletes are on their own time including bans on excessive drinking (or drinking at all at certain times) never mind taking drugs.

Sure even with such bans you can’t stop idiots being idiots but you can put in place a set of rules that make it clear if you break them your liable to be fired. This is not a lack of duty of care, it’s part of it i.e. it’s part of preventing players doing this in the first place because you make it plain if they go that way they are probably out the door.

As it stands it sounds like the club leaves it up to external bodies such as UKAD or enforce the rules and impose sanctions.

What would you do Dave?

What I have been saying in this thread. I’d have regular testing in place as part of the performance regime and I’d have a set of rules in place about how players are expected to look after themselves.

Those rules would be incompatible with excessive alcohol intake and obviously would preclude drug use. The sanctions that would be applicable could have a range of severity e.g. loss of wages or being dropped if excess alcohol is found all the way to dismissal for drug abuse or persistent offences.

I don’t think any of that is new or revolutionary. I can remember as a kid hearing top soccer players getting hauled mover the coals for being out drinking and not observing a curfew.

There are also plenty of other professions where you simply cannot turn up for work even with a severe hangover never mind having taken drugs so such measures as I suggest are not draconian nor would they be unique.

If players think life as an Wigan RL player is being out on the town several nights a week and that the club is OK with that and thinks it is powerless to change such a culture if one were to exist, I think all this talk of the Wigan Way is a load of flannel.

Would that have stopped Hamlin alledgedly taking whatever he did (could be performance enhancing and nothing to do with nights out, or could not be)? Would that have stopped a teenager having a drink too many on their one night out and making a bad decision to drive home?

Do we know they don't have those policies?

[DaveO]

What would you do Dave?

What I have been saying in this thread. I’d have regular testing in place as part of the performance regime and I’d have a set of rules in place about how players are expected to look after themselves.

Those rules would be incompatible with excessive alcohol intake and obviously would preclude drug use. The sanctions that would be applicable could have a range of severity e.g. loss of wages or being dropped if excess alcohol is found all the way to dismissal for drug abuse or persistent offences.

I don’t think any of that is new or revolutionary. I can remember as a kid hearing top soccer players getting hauled mover the coals for being out drinking and not observing a curfew.

There are also plenty of other professions where you simply cannot turn up for work even with a severe hangover never mind having taken drugs so such measures as I suggest are not draconian nor would they be unique.

If players think life as an Wigan RL player is being out on the town several nights a week and that the club is OK with that and thinks it is powerless to change such a culture if one were to exist, I think all this talk of the Wigan Way is a load of flannel.

Would that have stopped Hamlin alledgedly taking whatever he did (could be performance enhancing and nothing to do with nights out, or could not be)? Would that have stopped a teenager having a drink too many on their one night out and making a bad decision to drive home?

Do we know they don't have those policies?

Like I said earlier you can’t stop idiots being idiots but if you have what I suggest in place the consequences would be well known by the players and the result of failing to comply should be automatic. They are a deterrent. If despite a regime like that in place, players are still daft enough to try and beat the system, they deserve to have their contracts terminated for serious offences.

The fact it appears Wigan only found out about it due to a UKAD test in this case and after Mullen got pulled for drink driving suggests to me the club do not try and/or do not have a set of rules as to how players are expected to look after themselves or if they do they aren’t any good at enforcing them.

[ian.birchall]

Like an episode of Laurel and Hardy at the moment but without the laughs.

Can't condone what he has done but agree with the club supporting him. How long that lasts is anyone's guess.

He's out of contract at the end of the season so I wouldn't think that we will seem him again.

Would you not say Wigan have a "duty of care" to him in the meantime though?

No. I hope he was made to pay his own air fare home. Time to stop pretending that the Club owes a duty of care to any player caught drug taking or drink driving. Whatever happened to personal responsibility.