I would imagine the demons are the 'friends' he has grown up with & the associated lifestyle, who he seems to be having trouble ditching. If he has enough about him, & that is not definite, he can choose his new friends far easier 12,000 miles away. Your last sentence is a distinct possibility, however.

He isn't available to be interviewed today.

It is looking increasingly he is going and we have got a huge transfer fee which is pointless with the cap as low as it is because a player that would command that type of fee to replace him would want more wages than we could afford

I don't believe moving 12000 miles will solve anything and I find it very strange having been through what he has he has such difficulty in ditching so called friends. If he has identified them as the problem it must be obvious to him not to associate with them any more. If they persist in trying to contact him I am sure the club would assist him in sorting that out. RL down under puts players under the kind of microscope he has never experienced here even when he was originally caught out for drug use. I think he'd be quite mad to move the NRL hoping for any kind of less stressful life off the field.

Feck it, I'll say it; this sucks and I am completely disillusioned with our game.

We've had Jeff Lima move to South Sydney, Brett Finch and Thomas Leuluai opt to move to the NRL, we've got rumours of Gareth Hock leaving to the NRL, Harrison Hansen set to be poached by New Zealand Warriors, strong rumours of Lee Mossop going on a 'sabbatical' leave to the NRL. Coupled with the fact Union snapped up Joel Tomkins - a tremendous talent lost to the game - and inevitably we resign ourselves to losing our star player, our competition's flagship player Sam Tomkins to Union when we allow ourselves to bend over and let him speak to whoever the hell he wants next year. This flat out sucks.

Okay, critics will say Wigan have poached Blake Green and Scott Taylor from Hull KR, but just say that to yourself, Blake Green and Scott Taylor. Wigan's star signing next season is Blake Green. Without getting all the scapegoat, give him a chance, stop writing him off before he's kicked a ball spiel, I never imagined for a second we would see a halfback combination of Matty Smith and Blake Green at Wigan. All our best players appear to be leaving/left/retired without any like-for-like quality coming in. Sam Tomkins, George Carmont, Jeff Lima, Brett Finch, Thomas Leuluai, Gareth Hock, Harrison Hansen, Lee Mossop etc and who are we bringing in? Epalahame Lauaki, Anthony Gelling, Ben Flower, Gil Dudson, Scott Taylor, Matty Smith, Blake Green - it makes for horrible reading. Finally the RFL will have the even competition they've been looking for when we're on the same level as Wakefield, Salford, London and all them other ty little clubs.

What is the point in heavy investment in our youth setup, developing and nuturing these young RL players not just as a player but as men too, seeing them progress through our academy system, integrate them into the first team, establish themselves in the first team to eventually move up to England RL players to then see them as established players poached by Union or the NRL. And the only BS you hear in return is "well we got a substantial transfer fee" or "we'll develop another one" or "IMO -insert any young academy player- is going to be a better player anyway" - all ridiculous points to make. The transfer fee money is no use because we can't afford the salaries of a like-for-like replacement due to salary cap restraints i.e Blake Green (Brett Finch), Matty Smith (Thomas Leuluai), that young lad who people think will excel and replace the departed player will only end up being snapped again by the NRL/Union or might well just not be as good. I mean, will Wigan ever develop a player like Sam Tomkins in the next twenty years? Say the next ten years?

Yes this is a dummy spit and probably makes for a tremendous laugh for some of the trolls on here but that is sad in itself. The glee other supporters will get when the best players from our competition (Finch/Leuluai/Carmont/Lima - possibly Mossop/Hock/Hansen/Tomkins) are poached to another sport/competition and Super League, the product they are paying for, is worse off for it, but who cares as long as we can finally compete with Wigan.

All i can say is if Hock goes there is no one in the pack to frighten anyone, they dont even scare me!!he is our only enforcer.

www.1eyedeel.com/m/discussion?id ... %3A1139257 Not sure how reliable it is but it has a quote from the chairman confirming they are in talks.

www.1eyedeel.com/m/discussion?id ... %3A1139257 Not sure how reliable it is but it has a quote from the chairman confirming they are in talks.

not read the whole thread but i hope someone has mentioned that its a serious slight by hock against the club seeing the loyalty they showed by sticking by him with the drugs business.

seem to remember at the time people were arguing on here saying 'we should keep him cos if we don't he'll just go to oz and we'll lose out' - well, if this rumour is true, we've kept him and he's going to oz and (as another poster has laready said due to the salaray cap) we will lose out

Excellent post Cadoo!
As has been said, Hock is our only truly aggressive forward.
We will still have a very big pack but we will need an enforcer type player.
Are there any around though?

You are also missing a couple of the other platitudes handed out when we lose a player (particularly mid-contract) when they leave for greener pastures. The first is "I'd like to see how he goes in the NRL". Really? Why does anyone want to see our side broken up so we can watch a few highlights of the player running around in the NRL? The other is money related. Some player like Joel gets offered higher wages to play RU so "we should not stand in his way and you'd do the same if you got offered more money for doing a less difficult job" etc ignoring the fact the player signed a so called contract. Well if this move for Hock comes to pass then perhaps now everyone can see what the fact contracts aren't worth diddly squat means and where that gets you.

It's quite easy to hand out these sorts of platitudes when its just the odd player every now and again but when your side is transformed from one with several International class players to one consisting of mainly average SL level players then perhaps it may dawn on some people even if it looked like we could cover the loss of the likes of Joel easy enough you just can't keep doing it over and over.

And you are exactly right about the production line being no compensation. Where did Joel come from and where is he now? Ditto Hock if he goes and Sam if he follows? Produce another as good as any of them and off they will go as well. The idea often put forward by opposition fans that losses to RU or the NRL of players of the quality of Graham or Hock is of little consequence is rapidly being shown to be the joke it always has been. The trickle may not have turned into a flood of players leaving the game but it doesn't have to before even a steady stream of exits lowers the quality of the game here to a clearly visible degree.

For some reason at Wigan we seem to have got to a situation where not only have seemingly not got a cat in hell's chance of persuading players who are out of contract like Finch to stay on we can't even keep players who signed long term deals.

Lets hope this Hock rumour is not true and for once a player who signs a five year deal who in this case actually owes the club his very future in the game shows a bit of loyalty despite the fact another club has come knocking.

If on the other hand Wigan instigated this move to get Hock out for whatever reason then IL has in my opinion a lot of explaining to do to the fans as this move would continue the teams very recent and rapid decline in quality.

People are looking for a conspiracy theory, but perhaps he saw an opportunity to go and live in Australia, in a completely different culture, for plenty of dollarydoos, and play in the 'best' rugby league competition in the world.

Then that will seriously cheese a lot of Wigan fans off considering the way the club has stood by him over recent years.

You get the prize for the first bunch of platitudes related to this to be posted.

He has (had?) four years of a five year contract to run which should mean he doesn't (didn't?) actually have any such opportunity. The only reason he can go is because Wigan agree to it and if the club trots out something similar to what I already posted about "not wanting to stand in a players way, blah, blah" then they are as good as admitting we are [inever[/i going to keep any good players on the books.

Whatever Hock's reasons are the CLUB is party to this move and so has to explain why it is letting an England International leave one year into a five year deal especially after it has invested so much time and effort into his rehabilitation. Not standing in his way just won't cut it.