As I said, my original post was towards you and I thought you meant by letting go you meant sacking. If you sack him, you arent sacking him from rugby league, you are sacking him from your club which means you cant hold his registration. Pryce and Harris went to play a different sport.

There will be ways to hold his registration etc, im just pointing out that you cant do that if you sack him

Wigan RL needs a shake up top to bottom - Sacking Gareth Hock should be the start of a new era for this club , the end of the little boys club who take playing for wigan lightly. The symbol of keeping him would send out the wrong message , as for sending him out into the community - what would be the point in that - "listen kids dont take drugs but if your good enough Wigan will still keep you anyway"

From my understanding he became de-registered as sonn as his A sample was found to be positive.

My initial reaction was to sack him.

But everyone knows Gaz Hock is thick, they know he loves his recreational drugs and they also know the one thing he is good at is rugby league.

If we can keep him on in some non playing capacity and hel rehabilitate him then I'd certainly keep him. We'd then have an awesome player waiting in a couple of years.

It will also help prevent him getting into prison.

Just a thought but why would the club want to offer a role to a person whose stupidity has tarnished the name of the club and let them down extremely badly?

I think a lot of people give him a role simply as a title, to hold him to the club.

Not to take any active role, apart from his participation in rehabilitation.

his registration with the RFL will be cancelled.

For all his faults he's one of ours - signed at 17 probably involved at the club before that and worked for us for 8 years - all his adult life. Basically he's still the kid who turned up for his first day's training on a BMX bike. So given that he isn't the most academic of men Wiagn have had a significant bearing on how he has turned out - warts and all. We aren't talking about an Aussie on a short term contract but one of us.

So as a responsible employer - notwithstanding his abilities - offer him all the help and support possible.

I don't see the point in Hock hanging around the club. I cannot see what he would offer and I certainly do not agree that Wigan should be paying him anything.

However, if the rules allow I do think Wigan should be able to keep his registration for when his ban is up.

I have been torn to form an opinion on this, as on the one hand I do think that he should be punished, but I find it hard that there are other players playing in SL who IMO have done far worse, and more harm to other people, who are allowed to continue playing by their clubs.

I think wigan will do the correct thing and sack him. That's the only option wigan have really as he will be banned for next 2 years.

I'd be very shocked if he wasn't sacked.

It's a shame and waste of raw talent. It's a blow for wigan and England.

I hope he learns his lesson and comes back in 2 years and shows just how good he can be.

On the flip side I think mossop looks to be top class player and take hocks place.

I always understood it to be that if you did something like that you - in effect - sacked yourself. There is no doubting he is a fool and I bet he feels really great right now but we all make mistakes and I suspect there are a number of other players - not at Wigan I might add - who are thinking along the lines of "There but for the grace of God go I". I don't know how often they test players but it needs doing regularly and make sure it is wiped out of the sport altogether.
Personally I would like to see him retained at the club in some role if it is possible although whether he deserves it is open to some debate.
Hope you learn from it Gaz - you are a great talent that has been lost to us and a big part of your short playing career has gone un-necessarily.

I'm torn. I have some sympathy with this 'cast out the bad apple' approach as this incident is the clearest example of the poor culture & attitude that is all too obvious at the club. But, I'm all for forgiveness & redemption. In an ideal world, he'd put this behind him, come back in 2 years, start knocking lumps out of the opposition and add something special to the squad, culminating in a Man of Steel award.

If I was Lenegan I'd tell Hock to put a phoney Italian accent on and get his head down in Rigaletto's for a couple of years. Come back all forgiven.

IMO he should be suspened without pay for the length of his ban and continue his contract once he returns provided he completes any rehab and prooves he is no longer a user.

At the end of the day it was a 'recreational' drug not peformance enhancing so as long as he sorts himself out i don't see why we shouldn't give him a second and last chance.

Are you suggesting Wigan have had significant bearing on Hock ending up being drug user?

If so I think that is ridiculous.



A responsible employer has a duty to its other employees besides people like Hock and an employer like Wigan with significant community ties has that side of it to think about as well.

The club will come to a decision on how it will handle this and whichever way they go I trust it will take the interests of all parties into account and come to a conclusion based on that. So whatever that decision is be it to offer some support for Hock or just to fire him off the decision won't be taken lightly. So whatever it ends up being I don't think anyone can complain though we may have differing views on what should happen.

Dave

I do not know in which way we could keep him to be honest. It seems pointless to me paying him for 2 years while he is not playing although I would love to have a player like that coming back into our team in a few years.