If so don't forget to purchase in advance no pay turnstiles at LSV you can order and pay over the phone

Not going but looking forward to watching it.

Leigh fans appear to be a cocky lot these days and I'm hoping Salford knock them down a peg or two.

Winning 20 in a row and scoring for fun in the Championship has given some of our fans a sense of invincibility.

Realistically we are a Championship side playing a top 4 Super League side with a lot of big names and SL experience. I think we can cause Salford some problems and maybe even win but a Salford win is much more likely and they will be strong favourites for a reason. If we can up our game and match the intensity we showed against Leeds last season we will give them a good game. I just hope we don't take a hammering as that will be deflating but will at least give us an indication of where we are at and where we need to improve.

Leigh fans probably are getting cocky but we've won every game since last July and averaging over 40 points a game so it's hard not to get carried away at times.

Should be a great game and i'll be hopeful, if not confident, of a Leigh victory.

Gareth Hock with the winning try in the 80th minute

yep, i will be there.

Is Gareth Hock going to play?

With or without hock, Leigh have every chance of beating Salford.

Honestley can't decide who I want to win this, both teams have been getting too big for their boots the last couple of years and need knocking down a peg or two. I quite like the doc, so I'm going to say Salford just.

Salford are rightly favourites, but Leigh a real chance if they can match them in the forwards .

He has to or it sets a dodgy precedent for future transfers.

Should be a cracker of a game. If Leigh come out all guns blazing and get Salford on the back foot early, then I think they have a great chance of getting the result.
We'll never hear the end of it if they do, mind

What precedent is that?

Bear in mind, hock wasn't a transfer. He negotiated an early release which sees him retaining a portion of his wage from Salford. He then signed with Leigh as a free agent.

If he's a free agent then Salford have no authority over him whatsoever. If Salford want to decide who Hock can and can't play against then they need to retain him as a Salford player. They can loan him to Leigh, or anyone else, if they wish and put whatever restrictions they want on who he plays against.

But if Hock is not a Salford player then Hock should be free to play in any game Leigh wish to play him in.

Otherwise you'll eventually have the ridiculous situation whereby half the league can't play against each other.

I expect he is free to play Salford under the rules of the game, I also expect he'll be liable to repay whatever severance payments he's received for it though. The clause only runs as lon as he's receiving his severance - the term of his original contract. If another club had paid Salford for him, perhaps this would have been negotiated around.

The fact that he was granted his requested release and not retained until Salford could sell him on is why it is on Hock and not his new club. Surely these details would have been discussed in any negotiations with his new club as both Gareth and his agent were aware of the stipulation. If they weren't mentioned when Hock signed with Leigh that is neither Salford's fault or concern, they surely weren't involved with those negotiations at all.


TLDR; If Leigh had been willing to pay for Hock, they could have negotiated around the clause. They were after him pre-season but weren't willing to pay a fee.

HA!

That isn't the case though due to the controversial 'secrecy clause' preventing Hock or his agent from mentioning the no playing against Salford stipulation.

If that's true it's obviously stupid. I presumed the secrecy clause was more to do with the severance payments. Whatever the truth, it will surely come out in time anyway, this seems destined for a courtroom.