How thick must you be to take a banned substance at any stage of your life never mind a so called professional sportsman !

I agree with you on that but if you are going to do it because you enjoy it or for what ever reason the season finishes in September snort away then. Always amazes me that professional sports people are so thick to do drugs during the season when there is a chance of getting caught! Well he can kiss goodbye to his rugby career now!

Latchy - did you hear Terry O'Connor last night on Boots and All. Gave the game away a little bit, hinted that Hock is gutted at what he did. We'll have to wait until the B Sample results are made public but it may be that he is guilty after all.

Useful advice from Stevo 'they need educating' and 'someone needs to talk them through their contracts when they sign them'. I know Wiganer's are as thick as whale omlette's but even they don't need to be told DON'T TALK BANNED SUBSTANCES surely?

I also loved Cull's response to the suggestion of a life ban:-

'That's not the answer. People don't get life for murder....although I don't want to triviliaise things like that'.

I can never understand why all the players aren't tested after a match, surely that would be a fairer system and would discourage drug use. Anyone know how much a drug test costs?

Also why aren't clubs taking a more active interest in carrying out drug tests. Wigan would have looked a lot better if they had highlighted the situation rather than it being highlighted for by the rugby football league.

the lads made a mistake,show me someone in their mid 20's that hasn't?
he's fell foul of temptation and deserves a ban but he's hardly ben johnson is he,he just needs some help to sort his problems out and then maybe he can have a future in the game when his bans finished.i don't condone what he's done but i don't think he needs villifying for it.

He is getting it because he plays for Wigan!

I understand that cocaine use can raise levels of aggression, if that is correct, and IF Hock has been using would he be the same player post ban?

Yes i heard and i was thinking straight after about all this education nonsense, surely everybody in the world above the age of 16 knows that if you get involved in acts of illegality that you risk throwing your life away, you may lose your job, subsequently your house, your car not to mention the effect on your family and your reputation so all this educate the players is absolute tripe.
To say he's made a mistake is also way off because the only mistake he's made is getting caught, he like everyone knows what there doing at the time of doing it and if what Kevin Brown said is true about him going into rehab then it may have been going on for a sometime and may have a problem controlling it.

Amen. For the same reason i don't drink in the week. Because my job revolves around driving, i know that if i were to get breathalysed on an early morning after having a skinful the night before, i could kiss my job bye bye. All this nannying of people with problems....grow up, and accept the responsibility that goes with the best job ever.....playing a sport you love for a handsome wage.

The companyI work for can do a single drug test for £90, it the goes on a sliding scale depending on the amount of people you want testing. The cheapest being 11 or more people at around £50 per person.

about £20 for one test, but add to that admin charges and the logistics of custody and handling records, transportation.

not really financially viable

This would surely imply that he had been taking it prior to the game, and was high while playing.

I very much doubt that is the case. If it is, then he is, quite simply, the daftest person I have ever known

You can't teach stupidity.......

Clearly they do in Wigan...

Here's a poser for you all. People mention anything from two years to a life ban, i don't condone his behavior, in fact i take great pleasure in it being a Wigan player BUT how does his "alleged" mishap compare to say Ben Cockaynes? For me personally, if Hock gets two years then Cockayne should have got a life ban. Hmmmm.......