Quote: NickyKiss "Hardaker looks to have lost an awful lot of pace to me but then he looks bigger now then he did in his final season at Cas. I’d like to see him shed some bulk and see if it comes back (same goes for Joe Burgess) but if not then a move to centre is a must for me.'"
He could have just physically changed as his aged. Put on more size naturally meaning his lost pace, plus he's losing his lovely head of hair.
I think how we've used him plus the changes in his body type have resulted in a lack of breaks/clean runs this season. Still I think he's been great for us. Albeit not in attack, but defensively he's been top notch. His reading of the opposition attack, one on one tackles are as good as it gets.
If not as a FB, I'd have him as a centre or even winger in the Pat Richards mould. Ironically Richards played FB similar to Zak when he spelled there on occasion.