Let's go the other way with this Sal. Let's just say that we worked together and me, being the ever so funny guy I am, casually let it slip what a lovely bedroom you and your wife have and the cute things your wife does when she achieves climax.

In the real world most employees are going to turn a massive blind eye to the fact you broke my nose on company property.

Now let's imagine if Zak Hardaker reacted in exactlly the same way over his girlfriend. People would say he was being unprofessional for not just ignoring it. The RFL would issue him with the standard punishment and just shake their head at his excuse.

Works both ways, this pious real world BS.

I had no intention to trivialise the horrors of Hillsborough in comparison with these minor events.
I apologise wholeheartedly ( & I really do mean this) if my comments have caused offence.
I used a very poor example to make my point.

Interesting that it was the club who brought the police investigation to Hardaker and Minchella's attention, and "encouraged" them to go to the police themselves to answer questions.

Wonder if someone inside the club had knowledge of the incident (other than the two involved) and was hoping to bury it until the CCTV came out?

This thread is taking so many unexpected turns.

I have already posted on this thread, the club knew about this a few weeks back. It is a lie to say they brought it to Hardakers attention. They had already been in discussions with the players before the YEP piece on it, and waited to see if anything came of it.

IMO Duckenfield did what he needed to do to protect himself from killing himself. I'd expect anyone clearly and directly involved in the deaths on 96 people would protect themselves with whatever story they could rather than accept the truth.

Liverpool fans should be able to acknowledge this, because it's almost exactly what they do whenever they are in the wrong. They have been massively successful with the erasure of their incident.

Couldn't they have persuaded the YEP to not even run the story? Surely if Hardaker had to spend 5k burying this nonsense it would have been worth it for everyone concerned. I don't mean 5k to the YEP, I mean 5k to the student.

If Hardaker was hit in the pocket each time he was a moron he'd quickly learn to stop being such a moron. Just like a better way to deal with him would be for Gary to slap him around in front of the squad. I know it's not PC, but it would be effective.

So you advocate paying victims off to keep them quiet to save a criminal.

Does this happen a lot in Leeds and west yorkshire, as a quick fix it?

I haven't exactly followed what punishment he's got. But my recollection from the threads is that he's got to hand over 400 quid towards the victim and write him a sodding letter. In return he's got a slap on the wrist.

I suggested hitting him with a 5k payoff to the student as a lesson to him.

I personally think that the Leeds Rhinos, the student and hopefully Hardaker would all be better off over this.

The only losers would have been the oppo morons who who wouldn't be able to get on yet another high horse and pretending that Zak was some kind of out of control lunatic. Zak's wallet would have been lighter, but it would have been a great investment. 400 quid is a shrug of the shoulders.

That's just the legal requirement. The club are still investigating and may impose a heavier fine. if they do, that money may be offered to the victim as extra compensation, or may be given to charity, etc.

Throughout this thread I've always been very confident in my assessment that Leeds would see this as another none issue and just say one thing to the press and another thing inside the club. It was just my reading of events as I saw it. I know some people on here know I have a good source of info but I've never during his career ever used him to trawl for info. In total honestly I don't have much interest in the lives of the players, I support the 13 on the park and beyond that I'm not that interested.

I checked with my source just to check whether my assessment was right or whether the other people were right.

My source told me I was wrong.

So I hold my hands up and pretty much retract most of my comments on here. It sucks to be wrong. But it really, really sucks when you were really certain about something.

I'm struggling to deal with RL being so strict and harsh to ZH when everyone inside the game knows plenty of legends and Hall of Famers have done things 50 times as bad as Zak and still being accepted. The legend who was in the avatar. I love that guy because of what he did on the field. I know he served time in jail and as far as I'm concerned that's an issue between him, the police and the courts. I don't know the details so I don't judge. I also know some rumours and the only thing I can say about that is that I just hope someone lied. I hope the rumours were completely false. But if the rumours were confirmed right TBH I just don't even want to think about it.

I really think the world is messed up in 2015. People are so massively judgemental over things while the press and politicians are at an all time low. We have made lots of strides over racism, there's TV/twitter steps towards gay rights but the real world is completely different.

I think I need to start heavily drinking or get high because it's pointless thinking about things.

So what's the current state of play then, is Gotcha's version of events accurate?

I wasn't trawling for info. I was asking if I was right or wrong.

My source said I was wrong.

I don't like being wrong. I didn't have to make the post I did. But I felt that having been so arrogantly dismissive of how serious the club were treating it I felt I had to make a retraction.

This is the story that I’ve heard from an unusual but what I would consider reliable source.

Hardaker and Minchella end up at some student digs after a night out on the lash. They are with a group of other students who want to carry on the party, so to speak.

A student in a neighbouring apartment gets the hump with the rowdiness and kicks off with Hardaker, not knowing who he was. Hardaker/ Minchella (not fully known who) puts him on his arris, end of story.

This guy then later finds out the Hardaker is a pro Rugby player a few days later and approaches the club about the incident, presumably for a bit of compo. The club then take statements from Hardaker and Minchella, decide that there’s nowt in it and refer the matter to the Police, who also investigate the incident and also decide that no charges should be brought.

Hardaker is clearly stupid, the student clearly deserved it, the outcome was inevitable.