www.thereddevils.net/news/hock-t ... ed-devils/ is this good for the club or a bad decision ?

www.thereddevils.net/news/hock-t ... ed-devils/ is this good for the club or a bad decision ?

Whilst admitting he is probably the best second rower in Super League on his day, it's his on and off field actions that let him down time and again. His agent has obviously touted him around to other clubs without success so he had no option to withdraw his transfer request if he wished to remain in RL in this country.

Not sure on this myself, on one hand one of the best and most exciting second row players in Europe, but then you get the baggage which we saw towards the end of last season.

Someone showed me Hock's post on Twitter in support of Flower and he further blotted his copy book with this.

I'd be very surprised if yet again next season he doesn't implode after a brilliant start.

There's a couple of things wrong with this post.

The first is that his on and off-field actions let him down. His stats for this season do not stand up to that argument. There's plenty of players well ahead of him on the 'on-field antics' label. As for off-field antics, apart from a couple of opinions voiced over twitter I fail to see this argument standing-up either. If you talk about the past, then yes. Now or relevant? There's nothing.

The second thing wrong is that you state 'His agent has obviously touted him around to other clubs without success so he had no option to withdraw his transfer request if he wished to remain in RL in this country.'

Everything after the word 'Obviously' is nothing but raw opinion without base in factual information. Which is fine but it doesn't make it true, so your point becomes nothing. Except to belittle his choice to stay and have a backward jab at Salford.

I don't think it's wrong to argue that Gareth comes with 'on and off field actions' (and, presumably, the poster intended this in the pejorative sense), because we've seen him collide with the ref on field, and walk out on the club (and then change his mind) off field.

The question is whether the good outweighs the bad. Given that most Salford fans seem to be pleased he's staying, then that suggests, for us at least, it does. Fans of other clubs don't see him as often as we do, probably no more than a couple of times a year and when he crops up in the media having done a bit of the bad. It doesn't really leave them in a position to make that judgement, but, in true RL fashion, they don't let that stop them. Hence you'll see the predictable "your ([isic[/i) welcome to him" guff on here, and the "he's a past it penalty machine" from the ill-informed elsewhere.

Yeah, I can't disagree with that.