Banned until November 2018. 14 months in total.

Wigan announcement in 3...2...1...

No doubt other things will have gone on behind the scenes at Cas, but the decision to release him now looks incredibly stupid. Why would you sack someone that you’ve just paid £150,000 for when they’re only going to miss a season and are now going to sign for one your rivals?

Exactly what I said when he was sacked, probably the most stupid decision by any RL club ever.

thought it would be a two year ban for cocaine

is that not what others previous have had?

or does he get special treament

Truly bizarre. Like previous other cases have been players taking it for a competetive advantage?

I expect he's not exactly flavour of the month amongst his teammates at Cas to put it mildly. He'd hardly be welcomed back with open arms.

For anyone who wants to have a read of the judgements before jumping to conclusions they can be found here https://www.ukad.org.uk/anti-doping-rul ... tegory=541. although the Zak Hardaker one keeps coming up access denied. i assume it hasnt been uploaded properly yet or something (or Wigan dont want to release it )

For anyone who wants to have a read of the judgements before jumping to conclusions they can be found here https://www.ukad.org.uk/anti-doping-rul ... tegory=541. although the Zak Hardaker one keeps coming up access denied. i assume it hasnt been uploaded properly yet or something (or Wigan dont want to release it )

Another case of Wigans legal team being better than those employed by the RFL.
Fits in very nicely with Tomkins going (rumored many, many weeks ago).

My few initial thoughts:
Minor thought first - Why is his ban deemed to start from 8th September 2017 when he was playing up to 28th September 2017? Surely he was therefore playing during his period of ineligibility and his ban should start on 28th September and end on 29th November 2019? In effect his ban isn’t 14 months.
Secondly, the rationale seems a bit strange. I fully agree that he was facing a troubling time and that he has mental health issues that were well known before the incident, so he’s not just using this as an excuse. However, I worry that the panel decided that his ban could be reduced as he took cocaine whilst intoxicated. This seems to be a bit of a loophole that will be exploited by others in the future.
Thirdly, Cas were right to sack him. The club can’t afford to pay someone for sitting around for 13 months. He’d also breached his contract and undermined the culture and values expected. Paying him for failing a drugs test would send out completely the wrong message to all the other players and staff.
There is a precedent for Cas to now recoup the transfer fee from Hardaker himself. He breached his contract and therefore the club can claim any financial loss as a result of this. The club may well recoup the money paid for him.
I think anyone who takes him on is taking a massive risk. His next screw up is always around the next corner. I’m afraid he is incapable of making the right decision when he is put into difficult situations off the field. I wouldn’t want the constant worry about what he’s going to do next and when. He’s just a ticking time bomb who will inevitably let his next club down at some point.
Finally, he has obviously got some really idiotic friends who he should be walking away from, but won’t. His mates got him off his face, supplied his cocaine and allowed him to take it even thought they know the consequences he might face, even if Zak himself was beyond the point of making a rational decision (again).

On a separate note, it’s poor form for the panel to make his personal issues so clear. Their constant reference to the Jake Livermore case makes it pretty obvious what happened to those who don’t already.

He has still been out socialising with them plenty since the end of last season on their team days/nights out and is very much still a 'mate'.

My personal opinion is that the best chance Zak has to get back on track is to sign for a club like Wigan. He needs to get away from his clown 'mates'. If Wigan do sign him and they insist that he moves over there then I think he may have a chance of staying reasonably incident free. If he stays around Ponte area he's an accident waiting to happen again.

That's nonsense, sorry. On a good day Wigan is an hour away. Not far enough if the bright lights are too much of a distraction for him. When he left Leeds it was felt his move would resolve his issues, only for them to reappear. When someone is a thick as Hardaker is, trouble will inevitably follow them around.