muttywhitedog wrote:
Let him rot in Aus. He cant play for anyone as he is contracted to Wigan. If he's not here then he's in breach of contract and we have no obligation to pay him £5K a week.
We hold all the aces - assuming IL learned from the Edwards fiasco and actually got a signature on the contract.
Unfortunately, I think Hastings holds the aces in this case.
Wigan can’t actually stop him from signing for someone else. If he signed for another SL club, the RFL could refuse to register him. But it wouldn’t be Wigan’s decision. Similarly, the NRL might refuse to register him to play for an NRL club, but again that’s not up to Wigan.
The best option Wigan have is to take legal action against Hastings for BoC. But they’ll need to prove a quantifiable financial loss, which they can’t do. He’s also in Australia, and therefore it’s complex to take action through an ET. You can’t even go after any future club, unless you can prove they induced him into a BoC.
Put simply, Wigan can’t force him to work for them. Sure, they can appeal to the RFL and NRL not to allow him to register elsewhere, but that might not hold sway if Hastings himself claims a BoC by Wigan. He could then take action against the RFL/NRL for a restraint of trade.
And on the matter of payment, as soon as Wigan don’t pay him, he’s no longer and employee and can do whatever he wants. Wigan have nowhere to go here. If he doesn’t want to work for Wigan, the club can’t make him. They could try to stop him signing elsewhere and sue him for BoC, but both are likely to fail.
