Re: CONFIRMED | Zak Hardaker to Castleford Tigers : Mon Nov 13, 2017 8:58 am  

For mine, he's now a Rangi Chase style gamble of a player. I reckon a career of shuffling from one nothing to lose, worth a punt club to another beckons. That is of course unless he can pull himself together, accept that he has really messed up and do that most difficult of things, change. Sadly I think he will be another "if only, what he could have achieved" player, discussed over a pint or two.

Re: CONFIRMED | Zak Hardaker to Castleford Tigers : Mon Nov 13, 2017 9:47 am  

TOMCAT wrote:

For mine, he's now a Rangi Chase style gamble of a player. I reckon a career of shuffling from one nothing to lose, worth a punt club to another beckons. That is of course unless he can pull himself together accept that he has really messed up and do that most difficult of things, change. Sadly I think he will be another "if only, what he could have achieved" player, discuused over a pint or two.

Agree with this unfortunately you can't help anyone who won't help themselves.

[Ex-Swarcliffe Rhino]

Re: CONFIRMED | Zak Hardaker to Castleford Tigers : Mon Nov 13, 2017 10:44 am  

RHINO-MARK wrote:

Agree with this unfortunately you can't help anyone who won't help themselves.

This is sadly correct.

Re: CONFIRMED | Zak Hardaker to Castleford Tigers : Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:47 am  

BrisbaneRhino wrote:

If I were a Cas fan I wouldn't want him back. Imagine if one of our team had done this just before the 2004 GF and we'd lost the game.

Likewise as a fan I wouldn't want him back. A crucial thing from Cas' POV is what the squad think, majority will still be there in 2 years time and you have to wonder what their honest thoughts are of him. Those players may not get a better chance or even another chance at all to win a GF.

Re: CONFIRMED | Zak Hardaker to Castleford Tigers : Mon Nov 13, 2017 12:16 pm  

Agree with all that too.
But didn`t McMeekin already come out with his support for Zak and I think was echoing what some of the other players thought?

Re: CONFIRMED | Zak Hardaker to Castleford Tigers : Mon Nov 13, 2017 12:22 pm  

PrinterThe wrote:

Likewise as a fan I wouldn't want him back. A crucial thing from Cas' POV is what the squad think, majority will still be there in 2 years time and you have to wonder what their honest thoughts are of him. Those players may not get a better chance or even another chance at all to win a GF.

Considering he was out with a fair few of them at the time . Remember he is caught as he had to give a sample. Could have easily been one of a few more.

Re: CONFIRMED | Zak Hardaker to Castleford Tigers : Mon Nov 13, 2017 3:29 pm  

Gotcha wrote:

Considering he was out with a fair few of them at the time . Remember he is caught as he had to give a sample. Could have easily been one of a few more.

Oh I'm sure he'll have the support of his best mates in the squad but therein lays a problem unless it's the full squad as it could then cause a split. As for that last line you make it sound like pure bad luck on him.

Re: CONFIRMED | Zak Hardaker to Castleford Tigers : Mon Nov 13, 2017 4:19 pm  

PrinterThe wrote:

Gotcha wrote:

Considering he was out with a fair few of them at the time . Remember he is caught as he had to give a sample. Could have easily been one of a few more.

Oh I'm sure he'll have the support of his best mates in the squad but therein lays a problem unless it's the full squad as it could then cause a split. As for that last line you make it sound like pure bad luck on him.

Gotcha raises an interesting and pertinent point - there's plenty of them at it and he's just the unlucky one to get caught is how many of his teammates feel.

Coke use is rife in all forms of the game, to the point it's normal, it's not even a taboo subject, it just openly happens. The clubs have nutritionalists who teach the players how to cleanse their system (which makes him even more stupid that he got caught).

I seriously doubt there would be many players who'd not welcome a coke offender into their team, because they know there's at least another dozen in the team who regularly do coke anyway.

Re: CONFIRMED | Zak Hardaker to Castleford Tigers : Mon Nov 13, 2017 4:40 pm  

PrinterThe wrote:

Oh I'm sure he'll have the support of his best mates in the squad but therein lays a problem unless it's the full squad as it could then cause a split. As for that last line you make it sound like pure bad luck on him.

I have not said bad luck, not in the slightest. Stupid boys doing stupid things, their own problem. I am just saying somebody else picked for sample, and somebody elses problem.

Re: CONFIRMED | Zak Hardaker to Castleford Tigers : Mon Nov 13, 2017 5:09 pm  

If he plays for another club, the reception when he goes back to The Jungle will be something to behold. It'll make the days of The SouthStand -v- Shaun Edwards seem like a lover's spat.