Erm, well, West Yorks Police say different.

One more?
The odius child must be in double figures now

I get the point and agree with those saying the police will have been keen to sort this out quickly and easily......

.......but doesn't mean the victim has to agree to it if the incident was as horrific as some have decided it must've been seemingly based on the fact Hardaker once called someone a "f**king f*g" in a rugby match and must clearly be a hotheaded ticking time bomb as a result.

It's funny some mentioning and accusing people of wearing blinkers because he's a Leeds player.....yet constantly bring up his rap sheet as some sort of evidence in this completely seperate and non-RL incident, clearly showing there conclusions of what happened that night are heavily influenced by the fact he uses dodgy language and got confused about a team rule about curfew.

If he had previous for violent things then fair does, but he doesn't. I'm not basing what I think happened on who he plays for or what he's said on a RL pitch, I'm basing it on common sense and what we know about the incident. I'd suggest some try do the same but it clearly seems some people actually want him to get into trouble.

Another way to look at it is that he is a tremendously talented kid, just that he hasn't grown up yet and he needs some help to correct the one part of his "game" that really needs attention. After the England incident he came back and was outstanding for Leeds in the early season, not just because of raw ability with ball in hand but also his determination and attitude in defence where he was showing world class. He then f****d up by being the unfortunate individual caught using a word that many players would have used unoticed time and time again. Yet still he was named as the dream team FB and still played well all year. I think that says that there is enough there to work with and to persevere with.
I would be inclined to say that he has shown the right attitude on the pitch, someone already pointed out that apart from the sledging incident he has a virtually spotless record - he doesn't throw cheap shots, he doesn't come in high and he doesn't give many penalties away full stop.
Being out at 2am during the season is not on, and when that's combined with an assault (however severe it might have been) then it's doubly stupid. However, I do think we ask an awful lot of young men who suddenly find themselves under constant observation and held up as "role models". Some cope, some don't, and it's hardly surprising that people are different and have different skills. JP is seen as a role model, but would that have been the case when he was 23? The sport is full of stories of players who struggled with fame and alcohol in the early parts of their careers who went on to become legends and "role models". Jason Robinson talked openly about his issues and behaviour at a similar time in his career to Zac.

There comes a point where the playing side becomes secondary to everything else, Zac isn't there, and he may never get to that point. Personaly, based on how he works on the pitch, how he puts his body on the line and how he generally shows excellent discipline I think he'll make it, and in that case I want to see him in a Leeds shirt.

Do you think the police will have tried to convince the victim to avoid court? The victim will be traumatised to a degree and their rationality will be impaired too. Hardaker's abuse wasn't to a fellow player in the heat of battle but to the referee without whom you don't have a game.

Poster's bring up his rap sheet as evidence that he doesn't learn and all the apologising he did after the England and Child incidents were crocodile tears - the player quite simply thinks he can behave how he feels appropriate and because he is good player it will all be OK. The fact the club will condone this by selecting him on Friday say much about the culture/standards accepted at the club.

People just want players to behave like responsible members of society is that really that much to ask?

No it wouldn't. If it did then there would be hundreds of thousands of sackings across the country every week. We're not talking about someone being drunk on duty. So there is no alcohol issue for a normal workplace.
The homophobic thing is very unlikely to have resulted in dismissal unless it was a continuing behaviour issue. He would've received a warning and maybe equality training. But it's kind of irrelevant because no normal workplace puts a person in the same context in which the word was said.


His employers would be highly unlikely to know. Leeds were contacted by the victim because he recognised them. If they worked for a normal company nobody would know and they wouldn't contact the company even if they did, they'd contact the police. Who would arrest them at the time and they'd be released next morning. Unless it came to the point of being charged their employer would likely never find out. And even if they did it wouldn't come to a dismissal, nowhere close.

A good post and some good points - it raises the thought, if he wasn't such a good player would the club still have bothered?

We do ask a lot of young players and the number who go off the rails are small so I don't see that as an excuse that is about maintaining a professional approach/attitude - never seen the likes of JJB/McGuire/Sinfield/Burrow/Diskin ever having these issues? Perhaps their career was too precious to risk?

I disagree with the first point - take my job, we have annual external audits these can be very stressful and conflict happens regularly. Frustration can easily boil over especially when the day job has to be completed alongside the audit. If I were to refer to even a junior auditor in the way Hardaker did Child I would be fired.

On the alcohol - if I were out on company business and alcohol was not permitted but I disobeyed the instruction good chance of losing my job.

The second point it would depend on the circumstance - there is every chance of a dismissal depending on the culture of the firm

Leeds employ rugby players, if you're no good at that then everything else is academic.

Balance of risk and reward.

Yeah and if you shoulder charged a junior auditor you'd get sacked whereas a RL player would get a 1 or 2 match ban........utterly pointless comparing "normal" jobs to those who play professional sports such are the differences.

If zak plays on Friday, I'll be cheering him on and the rest of lads, if some don't want to that's up to them. I know he's done wrong and he's been punished! I don't look at the world in black and white like some, I'm not naive enough to think thing was a simple unprovoked assault, there will be many details we will probably never know about the night in question. It has been dealt with and its time to move on.

Care to expand on that comment as I have no idea what you are getting at?
Are you questioning what I was asking the Club would do in this situation or questioning what in my opinion I would do?

Two Words.

Dews Fest.

The infamous drinking pastime of a few of those names above. Senior describes them pretty bluntly in his book. See how far you could push a pub landlord / punters etc before you get kicked out. Happily erradicated by Mr T Smith as head coach.

I think the crux of the argument is that the above were not daft enougn to do their shennanigans in places where they would be easily filmed and or reported to a large extent.

Having thought about it, although I think he's an idiot for doing what he's done I'm not sure what sacking him would achieve? ATEOTD sport is a results business and to get results your team needs to include players of exceptional talent in order to be successful. Sacking him so Wigan or Warrington could sign him doesn't make sense to me, and no matter how much some fans may feel agrieved about their team employing a criminal at the moment, I'm sure it will all be forgotten about if he contines to play well and Leeds win games.

I lived in the US for roughly 8 years. When I came back I got a temp job working overnight stocking in a supermarket. Most of the people who I worked with were really sound. I was very impressed by the organisation of the work and all the employees I witnessed. The company was one of the biggest in the country. As far as I could see it had spot on policies and did everything the right way.

I think the night manager was a sound bloke. I did however get the vibe that he didn't go home at the end of a shift to female company. It wasn't anything concrete, it was just something about him. Doesn't bother me, none of my business. I did overhear a couple of women speculating if he was that way.

Anyway, one of the senior workers, seemed like a good lad, hard worker, joker, seems like a nice man and someone to turn to if you needed to know something. He's a bit loud and shares his jokes with half the building. He's shouting across to one of his buddies about being a bender or something. It's fairly clear that he's just joking and absolutely no one takes any offence. I simply cannot believe that management weren't fully aware of that kind of joking.

Having lived in the US for so long, I was a little bit shocked by it. I should say this was my first few days, so obviously everything was new. I asked one of the guys about the joking and it difficult because I was asking about the homophobic offence aspect while he was not getting it and just thought it was normal joking and didn't understand how anyone would feel otherwise.

Just thinking back, I'm actually reminded of when I worked in the US as an unloader. I'm reminded of the fact that 75% of the taunting between them was of the homophobic variety. I only worked as an unloader for a couple of months because I hated those guys (they were generally ok, just loud and I'm really not a team player).

When I came back to England I had missed Zak's first homphobic insult, so I missed all the fuss. I was here though for him blowing the kiss.

IMO the reaction to homophobia is a complete and utter twitter and TV scandal that goes on unchecked in the vast majority of manual labour jobs. IMO Zak's a real world working class guy working in a macho, BS talking environment. The only problem with Zak is that his world collides with twitter and the utter liars who run TV. I doubt there's many players who really gave a crap about what he said, they were just glad that they weren't the ones who were caught on TV.