Re: Hardaker & Hastings : Sat Jul 30, 2022 5:13 pm  

What seems to be happening at Wests is almost exactly the same as what I heard happened at Wigan.

Hastings is very good at portraying himself as 'hail fellow well met', but the real person is supposed to be different, and a top club won't wear that. Narcissism is the name of his game. It was easy to embrace Salford as they idolised him because he was their first very good player in decades. At Wigan, he knew he'd have to prove himself, and he didn't like it.

As for Zak ... just another of these daft lads from East Yorkshire, I'm afraid. He should have asked Scott Taylor how leaving Wigan for Hull worked out for him? How much silverware has he missed out on now?

Re: Hardaker & Hastings : Sat Jul 30, 2022 7:13 pm  

MadDogg wrote:

He played at Wigan for the money and for a route to the NRL. He also seemed to have a good relationship with Adrian Lam. But there was no affinity with the club and the fans felt no affinity with him.

Agreed I look back at his 2 years here as an odd time,the pandemic caused a gulf between fans and the club to me and that had started before covid times Hastings never bought into our club I feel and that wigan have gone on and won a decent cup and the style of rugby in doing so wouldn't have happened with him still here.

Hardaker should have been let go last season he didn't want to stay and when that happens get rid.

Re: Hardaker & Hastings : Sun Jul 31, 2022 9:18 am  

Hastings broke his leg yesterday

Re: Hardaker & Hastings : Sun Jul 31, 2022 9:43 am  

Hastings is a good player. However at Wigan he wanted to be conductor, pianist, drummer and lead violinist and it did create factions within the team.

F.T.V. any opinions now on the best #7 in Superleague at present Harry Smith?

Re: Hardaker & Hastings : Sun Jul 31, 2022 11:07 am  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

Hastings is a good player. However at Wigan he wanted to be conductor, pianist, drummer and lead violinist and it did create factions within the team.

F.T.V. any opinions now on the best #7 in Superleague at present Harry Smith?

He wants to be that everywhere he goes by the looks of things. I watched a Wests game a few weeks ago and there can’t have been a game in history where a halfback had touched the ball that much. He was probably involved in 5 out of every 6 tackles and the commentary team waxed lyrical about him. It takes a while of watching him week in, week out to realise it’s smothering and shuts other pivots out of the game. People talk about how good he was at Salford and he was. It was a perfect environment for him. If he went back there now and played alongside somebody like Brodie Croft, I think you could guarantee Croft would become invisible.

There’s been some talk of England potentially selecting him. I keep everything crossed that does not happen (I don’t think it will anyway, especially if he’s now broke his leg as noted above).

Re: Hardaker & Hastings : Tue Aug 02, 2022 11:23 am  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

F.T.V. any opinions now on the best #7 in Superleague at present Harry Smith?

He’s playing very well isn’t he - fair play to him. Having such strike around him and a stronger pack is certainly making his life much easier than last year. I think any halfback would love playing on a team with a player that causes as much panic as Jai Field.

I have nothing against the lad - I hope he ends up being a terrific player. I didn’t think he was having a great time before that relative to his reputation but I don’t think I was alone in that.

Re: Hardaker & Hastings : Tue Aug 02, 2022 12:26 pm  

FearTheVee wrote:

He’s playing very well isn’t he - fair play to him. Having such strike around him and a stronger pack is certainly making his life much easier than last year. I think any halfback would love playing on a team with a player that causes as much panic as Jai Field.

I have nothing against the lad - I hope he ends up being a terrific player. I didn’t think he was having a great time before that relative to his reputation but I don’t think I was alone in that.

I've been very impressed with his goal kicking this season, especially from the LHS of the posts. We've scored a high majority of tries wide of the posts due to the success of French, Field and Marshall. He's been banging them over with ease, missing only the odd one or two.

Would love to know his % success rate this season.

Re: Hardaker & Hastings : Tue Aug 02, 2022 2:17 pm  

Rogues Gallery wrote:

Hastings is a good player. However at Wigan he wanted to be conductor, pianist, drummer and lead violinist and it did create factions within the team.

F.T.V. any opinions now on the best #7 in Superleague at present Harry Smith?

Absolutely agree on both points.

Hastings is a wonderful player but our attack struggled because if you shut him down you shut Wigan down.

He reminded me of Trent Barrett in his style of play, however he was no Barrett as he never got shut down.

I like Cust, however I’d have loved to see Hastings with Peet as coach. I think he would have been very special.

Smith’s transformation has been remarkable.

He has his weaknesses but he’s developing very nicely. I genuinely didn’t think I’d be saying that.

Re: Hardaker & Hastings : Tue Aug 02, 2022 2:51 pm  

MattyB wrote:

I've been very impressed with his goal kicking this season, especially from the LHS of the posts. We've scored a high majority of tries wide of the posts due to the success of French, Field and Marshall. He's been banging them over with ease, missing only the odd one or two.

Would love to know his % success rate this season.

79% success rate

assuming the stats on super league website are up to date

64 successful conversions divided by 81 attempts = 0.79

0.79 x 100 = 79%

not bad really considering how many of our tries are scored down the wings, i actually expected it to be more to be honest and i am sure others did too which i think shows how much confidence he has brought to people since taking the role.

Re: Hardaker & Hastings : Tue Aug 02, 2022 3:36 pm  

BoredWiganer wrote:

79% success rate

assuming the stats on super league website are up to date

64 successful conversions divided by 81 attempts = 0.79

0.79 x 100 = 79%

not bad really considering how many of our tries are scored down the wings, i actually expected it to be more to be honest and i am sure others did too which i think shows how much confidence he has brought to people since taking the role.

It was as Hugh as 84% a couple of weeks back
Think a few misses against KR have affected that.

Anything 70% above is respectable
75% above is good
80% is very good (and I would say excellent especially with the wide kicks he's had this season).