Spot on pal!!

Also spot on!!

Do you not think it's a bit soon after all his off field stuff? His last indiscretion that we know of was two years ago, and we've been in partial lockdown for a long period of that.

on the last 3 games hes probably been our best player over the 3

Great player - really pleased he's turned the corner at Wigan.

I can only go off what I see and know and what I see on the field and by the looks of it off it is a natural leader.

Already part of the leadership group which was chosen by the players.

Possibly is but he’s worked hard to turn heads and opinions, as exemplified by jonh who IIRC was vehemently against his signing.

A leadership role is a broad term, he’s ultimately a senior player in the team and the younger players will look to him - and others - for advice and learn from him. He may already inadvertently be in a leadership role, the likes of Hankinson and Bibby could and probably are learning an awful lot from him which can only benefit them both at whichever club they end up at. A leadership role doesn’t necessarily mean in the ‘leadership group’

My view on Hardaker regards playing is that he’s lost pace, so therefore he’s not as dangerous but he’s still a very good player. He’s also playing out of position and he looks to have been learning on the job and he’s got better as time has gone by. I think this time next year we’ll see a much better centre in Hardaker.

As for leadership, he looks a great guy to have around the group and an ideal candidate to be part of a leadership group but unfortunately you could never pin your hopes on him as outright captain. That’s not to say he hasn’t changed but this is a guy on his 5th or 6th chance and his reward for being a reformed character is being part of that leadership team but IMO those previous misdemeanours rule him out of the top job.

Must say from an outsider looking in, from what I have seen of him, I am impressed with a couple of things on Hardaker over the last couple of years: 1. His attitude (I will be the first to admit that I was doubtful that he had changed and I thought Wigan were making a mistake in signing him) I think it is clear for everybody to see (Other than Nottingham Tiger) that Zak has turned his life around and completely changed his attitude - This has to be admired 2. The maturity of his game is there for all to see, he seems to make all the right decisions and he still has the ability to finish his chances, previously it was just 100% ability with some naivety in his game.

In terms of the people wanting a game breaker, lets not forget at Cas, not only was he in a key position at FB to be able to have such a big influence on the game but he was there game breaker, although Gale went well, Zak was there number one threat - At Wigan he seems to be in a more structured set up with multiple attacking threats in the spine in French, Hastings etc so not as much of the reliance is on him to create or be there in support of the opportunities created.

1 thing I don’t get is the perception that he isn’t a centre.

He played all of his junior rugby at centre, made his breakthrough at Fev as a wing then moved to centre and was signed by Leeds as a centre as a long term replacement for Keith Senior.

His first season at Leeds was at centre and he only moved to fullback when the Webb picked up an injury.

When he moved to the NRL with Penrith he played as a wing/centre.

If Webb hadn’t been injured he would never have played fullback. This clearly became a very good position for him and one he made his own but he still has bags of centre experience.

Given his loss of pace the move back to centre was a natural move for him and for me particularly positionally that experience as a centre hasn’t been lost to him.

Barely puts his winger away though.

I really rate the lad and have grown to appreciate what he brings to the team. There is a part of me that's a little disappointed that we didn't get the Cas vintage, but he's a solid 7.5/10 (at least) performer, week in, week out.

One of SL players that when he was at other clubs I felt a tad jealous of him not being at Wigan,so happy he came, yes not in the best of circumstances but he seems settled and is more than a solid performer each week.

Is he the only player to win the LLS with 3 different clubs?.

Lee Gilmour has won the LLS at least twice with three different clubs.

Wigan 1998 and 2000
Bradford 2001 and 2003
Saints 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008

Zak has been outstanding this year. I get that people are commenting that he's perhaps not the eye catching game breaker that he was at Cas but I feel that is somewhat missing the point. What he has added, not only to his game, but to his leadership skills and, most importantly of all, as a person more than outweighs the yard of pace he has lost. Unlike Cas we have that commodity in abundance elsewhere in the team.

I feel it's very much a similar situation to Hastings. Less of the showreel stuff for sure but overall a more rounded player with a value to the team that goes well beyond that.

wasnt a shield in 1998 and 2000

Oh. Well he's played for a team that finished top of SL all those years anyway, and they seem to retrospectively count it towards our tally. Same difference

There was no LLS until 2003,close but no cigar

Why did we let Gilmour go? remember him as a kid (me as a kid) and thinking he was great. Watched him for Great Britain at Central Park against Fiji and he must have been a teenager.

Oh. Well he's played for a team that finished top of SL all those years anyway, and they seem to retrospectively count it towards our tally. Same difference

But i never mentioned finishing top i said LLS,read more carefully before posting

A very good post about Zak and pretty much bang on with what I was told John

I was told at the time that we initially signed Zak ( by a person within the club) that they initially singed him to play on the wing as he was only about 11 or 12 stone wet through, in order to get him used to playing SL before moving him to centre to replace Senior.
But that the club were also aware that Webb was coming to the back end of his career and that they could also see him being a replacement for Webb too
Either way the Rhinos needed either a 1 or a 4 to replace Senior or Webb

Zak was sensational for Leeds and Cas at 1 and was on a par with Sam Tomkins although they both had very different skill sets.

I honestly believe that the Rhinos and Cas both got the best of Zak whilst he was at his peak but that you guys have also got a very good player who looks to have settled down at Wigan

I did, I thought it was an interesting bit of trivia and made the fundamental error of thinking about it and trying to provide a response to engage you in conversation. Sorry for not knowing when they first started handing out the hubcap oh great and knowledgeable one. What incredible insight to correct me three hours after someone else had already said the exact same thing.

Maybe not everyone is on their phone every second of the day