Fact is if Cas do sign Hardaker , their halves and fullback will be vastly superior to anything Leeds can offer , whether Leeds fans want to admit it or not .

Even if you ignore potential off field stuff I don't think Zak is good fit for Cas, completely different style/skill set to Dorn who they've had much success with.

It's really split Cas fans this topic
On one side of the fence will Powell bring that form back that made him into the player you folks got and then brought on further
Or will it be as a few posters have stated upset the culture and ethos Daryl and the coaching staff created.
Many Tigers fans have also thought about Benny Roberts at fullback so he can have a free role. His defending is strong plus he's a left footed kicker or even at 13 so we'd have Gale Chase Roberts and Hardaker going forward
IF Hardaker does come to Cas I've no doubt he'll have more clauses in his contract about behaviour off the field than you can shake a stick at.

Plenty of food for thought

If we don't sign a Half to compensate then I don't think you would find many on here disagreeing with your statement.

Hardaker is a different type of full back to Dorn. However our options at 1 at the moment are Ben Roberts (who was very poor playing there in 2015) and Greg Eden (say no more). Hardaker would be a vast improvement on either of these two at full-back if he can get anywhere near his form before 2016.
I would imagine Ben Roberts will come off the bench and play as our impact hooker and create competition in the halves to keep Chase on his toes. Given Leeds' lack of options in the halves, it wouldn't surprise me to see Roberts move to Leeds in exchange for Hardaker.
However, at the moment it's all rumours - he'll probably sign for Leigh tomorrow.

Hardaker & Chase party time in Cas Vegas.

Yes, that worrying thought had crossed my mind. Two players who have the potential to be a very bad influence on each other.
Conversely, I wonder if Rangi will be a good influence on Hardaker. He seems very settled at the moment and is one of the few players who can maybe use his experience from the last few years to help Hardaker knuckle down and get on with playing rugby.
If Hardaker comes in thinking he's better than everyone else he's in for a shock on the training ground when Rangi, Gale and Roberts start show-boating. It will be like Tony Adams and Martin Keown trying to play 2v2 keep-ball against Ronaldo and Messi.

The same applied this year so no different for next season

How did it not work? IIRC they didn't play a full 80 mins together all year and Maggsy clearly hasn't been fully fit

You are allowed to backend contracts and pay players more the year after, so in reality you only need to keep around 20k free to sign someone mid season (to meet the minimum pay SL allow)

Dont understand the reputation of GH being cheap, JP Webb Buderus Ellis were all world class players that will have been on top wages

Although if we don't run a reserve side next year... (any word on that btw?)

Rangi Chase being a mentor to Hardaker now that's funny.

Hardaker and Chase in the same dressing room. Jesus!

We are certainly rolling the high-stakes dice.
Hardaker, Chase and Eden signed for 2017 (presuming the rumours are true). All have undoubted qualities, but also some major frailties.

I think Hardaker will be a major asset for whoever he signs for next year, the lad has bags of ability. If he does end up signing for Cas expect Powell to get the best out of him and we will see a return to the MOS form which will be a particularly hard pill to swallow for us Leeds fans.

Powell does get the best out of players and if he gets the best out of Zak, (if we are signing him) we will have the best fullback in the league. Even a 70% Zak will be a better option than Eden for me..... so i for one hope this rumor is true. Cas have an announcement at 12 today so maybe this is it.