Wigan won the Challenge Cup in 2011 and the LLS and Hock came back from his ban. You would think the bloke would be on his best behaviour and then just because we were losing a game at your place he decided to grab a handful of Ben Harrison's eyeballs!

That was a 'winning' side in general.

How true. If Hock could not behave himself in those circumstances how much worse would he be with the shreds of his playing career around him? Wigan gave him every chance and he still ratted them out. Good riddance.

Get your cheque book out Mr Moran.

Wire need more mongrel.
We are too disciplined and too soft in my opinion.

Or maybe the game as a whole has become too soft.

As a speccie I like it rough and tough, non of this pat s cake pat a cake rubbish.

so lets get this straight, you want us to sign gareth hock, and tony puletua? who did diddly squat between them for Salford last year and this?

That's last year's Wire you are talking about. Much more aggressive this year - Sims, Westwood, Laithwaite, Harrison all been tearing in this year.

No teams are allowed to be overly aggressive anymore. The banning of the shoulder charge and tough penalties for fighting have put paid to that.

The general moaning that goes on nowadays about aggressive play from commentators, fans and clubs is born out of those rule changes.

The game could never be described as having gone 'soft' but it's been watered down massively.

Good comment. I think this sums him up. Another thing to bear in mind is that he may yet get another ban for his Twitter comment. It could easily be July before he plays again.

Quite possibly, the most telling quote that's been put on these boards for some time.

Bar the obvious politically incorrectness of my tone, this bloke is a walking fruitcake.
He fights
He eye gouges
He shoves people in "authority"
He kicks
He has drug issues
He gets thrown out of representative squads
Sacked (in effect) from sides
Obviously has many issues

What sporting team would SERIOUSLY entertain him.

I get no pleasure from saying this, but this fella is not going to fair well, in the next decade. He needs help, and quick.
We know most of SL's teams have these "welfare officers", as well as coaches, etc. Fat lot of good it's done Hock.
We have "State of Mind", which is prevalent after the demise of Terry Newton. Now, I'm not saying Hock's going to go the same way. But HE NEEDS HELP.......QUICKLY

Does Hock realise in himself that he needs help, if not, it is an uphill battle to get him to sit down with the right people.

Poppy cock.

Yeah he has got a screw loose but he is also a bloody good rugby player.

Let's get him signed up then sit back and enjoy the ride.

It'd be worth the extortionate admission alone.

Oh and while we are at it, laithwaite and Harrison are not the bullying or enforcing type.

Sims makes out to be an enforcer but I'm yet to be convinced. Westwood is our only mongrel but he is getting on a bit and is not the player he was. Granted I thought he had his best game in ages against St George.

Laithwaite tackles everything put in front of him, i think part of our improved defence is down to him.

I get your angle on it Fishy, and I get Yed too.
We need to strike a balance though.

Gareth Hock unfortunately has too much biff in him to be anything else but a liability, he's had countless chances, the first knee is biff, the second knee was assault.

Running at a Ref...first time accidental biff the second time ABH.

What I think Fishy misses and so do I is our old guard players of Boyd, Tamati, Jackson and Humphries.
Gentleman of the field and pure biff on it without being criminals.

Would I swap our big name signings of the last 2 seasons of Sims Clark Hill and Asotasi for the old guard above?

In a heart beat. I'd sell my granny to get those guys back.

Fishy in a way is right, but Hock isn't the answer.

I look at Laithwaite as more of a Gary Sanderson type of player.

Whilst a lot of us enjoyed the game in an era that had plenty of 'characters' and perhaps miss it and them, would it be tolerated in this day and age? It used to be that every team had a pantomime villain, a Boyd, a Mills, a Skerritt, a Casey etc and we loved those guys slugging it out in the mud with our own. Apart from a full length try what's a better way of getting the crowd at it on a freezing cold winter's day?

It's a bit like wrestling on World of Sport though, those days are gone, the game has moved on and not just in a seasonal way.

For me I'm glad I saw it raw and wonder how these guys would 'cope' today and how today would 'cope' with them? Hock certainly isn't the answer and judging by the outrage aimed at the likes of Flower and Westwood for their relatively minor/less frequent indiscretions it isn't returning anytime soon