That goes without saying, what got me fretting was how much weight he's put on in the face Looking at that photo if it is him, he wasn't dropped because of police enquiries, he's not match fit.

If Hardaker & Minchella were involved in this incident I can only imagine what McDermott & Hetherington must think.
They (Hardaker & Minchella) must both be truly stupid not to have learned anything from the examples set by Peacock & Sinfield both on & more importantly off the field.
So, so disappointing that they could have let themselves, their families, colleagues & the club down.
Sadly, appalling behaviour by young sportsmen seems to be on the increase.

For Zaks case let`s hope he was acting in self defence and or Minchella was the one who threw the punches
Even so poor from both of them to be out there at that time doing what!?
If it was Kylie or Burrow I might not have been that bothered

Whilst I agree it's disappointing from both Hardaker and Minchella, especially Hardaker since he should know he's high profile and with his previous indiscretions he needs to be careful. And that both of them should be more professional like numerous other members of the squad (regardless of what's happened in this incident they were both out drinking til half 2 when they shouldn't be).

But I don't agree that this kind of behaviour by young sportsmen is on the increase. We only need to look back to the thread on here about Schofield and the amount of stories about what senior squad members were getting up to never mind the younger ones.
I think young sportsmen are more professional than ever.

I'll be very surprised if Zak is at Leeds next season, even before this incident I had my doubts

We'll have to agree to disagree on this.
I don't recall reading in the past(20+ years ago) regular stories about sports stars being arrested or charged for assaults, drunk driving, drug misuse &/or drug dealing on a weekly if not daily basis.
Back then there was not the money nor the media attention that such people get these days.

Which maybe the primary reason it appears to be on the increase. I can only imagine what some of the pictures from some of the famous drinking sessions would've looked like from the old days had there been camera phones, CCTV and social media.

I still think that back then the likes of these young men may have drunk too much but they would probably have been too knackered from working all day in "proper jobs" to have then gone out on the alleged rampage in the middle of the night.
The truth now is some of our modern sportsmen have too much money & too much time on their hands.

TBF in the "old days" there wasn't CCTV, and there wasn't even reporting of a lot of the types of crimes that NRL/SL stars are getting caught up with now. Who knows what was going on.

And we didn`t have solicitors who advertised no win no fee.
There was always trouble in the "good old days"
Men were men and were too ashamed to say they had got a good hiding from someone so just got on with it.
Trust me I was friendly with the likes of Paul Gill, Roy Dickinson, John Atkinson and Alan Smith who I am sure could tell you a story or two.
CCTV like has been mentioned wasn`t around either.

Yep. Drink-driving mentioned. People drink-drove *all the time* in the 70s/80s unfortunately. Including many of the Loiners first team, I'd imagine (case in point, John Atkinson, a former *policeman* got done for it many years later, once it became taboo.)

Take advantage of a girl when drunk? Go for it. Hell, marital rape wasn't made illegal until 1991. Controversy over a homophobic insult? Ha.

Fact is for all our rose-tinted memories RL was played in a tougher, more macho world on and off the pitch back then and there's no evidence that behaviour of the stars was any better than now, and I'd wager if judged by today's standards it would have been a good deal worse.

I have to agree - I sincerely believe that today's modern RL player is much better behaved than his 60's/70's counterpart.

The difference being social media, CCTV and the fact that 90% of the UK's under 25's have a smart phone complete with 'quick access' camera glued to their hand 24/7. Coupled with the unfortunate litigious society that we currently live in, misdemeanors like the one's that Zak seems to get himself into are quickly reported, dramatised, exaggerated, tried and sentenced on the internet within a matter of minutes.

In a court of law the defendant's previous behavior can not be a contributing factor to their trial, but with the society we live in today will pin a big fat "Guilty" on someone because of the past indiscretions before anyone can bat an eyelid.

So far we are debating something that might not even have happened.

Still seems a bit strange that the incident took place on February the 3rd and the first its reported is March the 10th. It said several men entered along with other students yet no images of them put up to question them. That nobody there was able to identify to police Hardaker who is a top player for the city's RL club and apparently entered the building with them?

If you stuck Zak Hardaker's face in front of four random students at any university in the country, I doubt many would be able to immediately identify who he is.

Even less so at 3am when you've just been woken up by a ruckus outside your front door.

If he's involved, it's one incident too many. Time he was gone.