If he is getting as big as people say, he is going to be an awesome addition. I just hope the lad can put all that has gone before behind him, and some fans can too. We all make mistakes and its not like he killed anyone. Many of us in his position would have been found wanting i'm sure. Good luck to him. If he now comes under Madge and Wane for "pre-season" he may well soon be wishing he was painting skips again.

He cant play until the ban is over, but can train with the team if approved

But it means by june 31st he will be ready to play

That is an excellent article

Thats a worry....

We can only do that because while I agree with you 100% about how the coaching has improved many players it has not worked with all of them. Feka is the obvious example, it could be argued Ainscough is another. I was really looking forward to Madge sorting Feka out and getting him to be a beast of a prop for us in SL but look what happened. There is no guarantee Hock can adapt to the new regime and if he does not then Madge will select others and Hock will be on his way.

I simply think he’ll go ok because he seems to be working hard and he’s got a hell of a lot of talent.

But as you say you'll never know.

Just seen Hock in dominos pizza in pottery road looks plenty big enough to play prop.

If Hock backs up his words from his interviews in terms of his desire, that alone will see him succeed to some extent.

If he buys in to the Madge ethos and plays with the control Madge likes, what he could achieve is scary.

What you said.

Of course you can, Hock played the same game under a number of coaches. He's a talented lad and a hell of an athlete, but he's never been an intelligent footballer. The point being made is not that he doesn't have talent, which he has in spades or that the new coaching regime haven't improved certain players - they have. The biggest ask for me is if Hock can develop his game to fit into the current gameplan as his natural style is some way outside it.

the same could have been said about lockers , penalty machine etc , look at him now

fact is its up to the players , if they want to stay and play , they need to conform


i cant wait to see him back in a wigan shirt

I agree with most of this. The big question for me is whether Hock can step back up to the plate.

As for his ban, well imo it was a hell of a ban for recreational drug use that wasn't about trying to gain an advantage on the field. As far as I am concerned there is no issue with his past whatsoever.

I think there are two separate points. Back in the dark days of Millward & Noble, we had no coaching towards support play, so there was rarely anyone there to take advantage of his offloads. Even back then I always said we needed an Edwards to be backing him up. That has changed.

I agree he'll need to be more selective about when he does it, but that can be coached into him, I'm confident, and more crucially, the current coaching staff have the ability to put in place a support tactic to have someone always on his shoulder - much as Leeds try to do with Lauititi, or Wire with Solomona.

Someone like Sam could have a field day running off the shoulder of Hock - much like Radders used to do off Andy Farrell.