TBH, it's a fairly standard mental leap for some Wigan fans.

Known data - we don't know what's happening with Gareth Hock.
Conclusion - the club is falling apart.

Well no the club is not falling apart but its pretty obvious [isomething[/i is happening with Hock and the clubs usual way of dealing with it results in what it always does, rumour and speculation.

Rumour and speculation is the lifeblood of Wigan RL fandom, and always has been. Some of it exciting, some of it depressing. But comments like "the club is falling apart" are utter tripe, unjustified by anything that has either been said or not said in the last few weeks.

Indeed. Can you imagine if the club responded to all rumour and speculation - it would be a full-time job in itself.

There's absolutely nothing for the club to say at the moment. Hock is a Wigan player, just like the rest of the squad, if that changes there'll be an official statement. I know some people would love the club to deal with transfer and personnel issues in public, unfortunately for them the real world doesn't work like that.

I nearly fell over I laughed so Hard at this!



God help some if they had to go into a season with this squad!
Player
Starts Subs Total Tries Goals Drops
Steve O'Neill 34 - 34 2 - 1
Les Bolton 33 1 34 4 - 1
Jimmy Hornby 29 - 29 11 1 -
Bill Melling 29 - 29 5 - 1
George Fairbairn 27 - 27 4 77 6
John Clough 17 8 25 1 - -
Steve Breheny 24 - 24 2 - -
Martin Foy 22 2 24 7 - -
Danny Campbell 21 3 24 2 - -
Dennis Ramsdale 23 - 23 3 - -
Trevor Stockley 18 2 20 9 1 -
Terry Hollingsworth 15 3 18 2 - -
Dennis Boyd 17 - 17 - - -
Nicky Kiss 14 2 16 1 - -
Keiron O'Loughlin 16 - 16 4 - -
Ness Flowers 12 1 13 4 - -
Alan Greenall 8 5 13 1 - -
John Butler 11 1 12 3 - -
Tony Karalius 9 3 12 - 4 -
Malcolm Smith 9 2 11 4 - -
Mick Nanyn 7 4 11 1 - -
Dave Regan 7 3 10 2 - -
Bernard Coyle 6 4 10 - - -
Barry Williams 5 1 6 2 - -
Mike Rennox 4 2 6 - - -
Martin Sivori 5 - 5 1 - -
David Walsh 4 1 5 - 1 -
Steve Davies 4 - 4 - - -
Ray Farnworth 4 - 4 - 8 -
Green Vigo 4 - 4 - - -
John Pendlebury 2 - 2 1 - -
John Wood 1 1 2 - - -
Anthony Karalius 1 - 1 - - -
Geoff Norris - 1 1 - - -


Thank God there were no Message Boards then!

Ah the "good old days"


But by god we had some laughs.

I always do, its a ritual with me every night, clean teeth, have a pee, break wind, check under bed, not always in that order though, I'm not mad am I nurse................................

It already is responding. Wane has been asked about it and responds with "no comment" which just fuels the rumours even more.

No one excpects the club to respond to every rumour going because there is nothing in 99% of them. It's when its obvious something is going on and we end up hearing it last from our club and usually when players leave first from the club the player ends up at that is the problem.



It's blindingly obvious there is something going on here and the fans want to know if Hock is going to continue to be a Wigan player or not. It's not that unreasonable.

Who could forget going to away to Blackpool Borough in a freezing December, standing on broken, roofless terraces that were covered in sheet ice, watching us play a bunch of ale-gutted nobodies - and seeing us get well beaten?

It's a genuine miracle Wigan RL survived that era.

Yes, until something is sorted out as to his actual future. Then and only then should the club respond to those who want to know every bit of tickle tackle.

If this happened pre-Christmas how many Hock shirts have been sold whilst the club knew he was never going to play for us again?

I'm not devastated by the loss of a top player capable of so many bad performances and so many stupid penalties but the club's handling of it has been awful from the fans point of view. When it became such common knowledge that he was off or even that something was wrong there should have been a statement along the lines of "GH will be disciplined for an act of pig-headed stupidity" to at least warn those not on here/ checking comments on the observer website.

It wouldn't have have made any difference to me but I'd wager a good few fans would have had second thoughts about renewing/taking up season tickets if they knew a(nother) star player was leaving. Maybe IL was being smarter than we thought.

Main thing is, how can you "comment" if you don't have any answers?.. You are assuming that all the answers are there, how do you know they are? Everything you say is assumption assumption assumption.

I would expect there to be unrest in any and every squad, we can all assume that others would looking to improve their careers too, but the club don't owe us anything in the way of statements if they have nothing to state. We can all assume of course, and i'm sure there are some problems between Hock and the club, but his record for trouble has not been the best has it? Whether its a clash with Wane, who can say. My only concern is that this is not affecting the morale of the squad, i don't give a diddly squat what i know, i'm not that important as an individual.

Ive heard a rumour about Sam, Lockers, Josh and HH
All looking for a move

But i;ll believe it when i see it, ..or when Wane says "no comment"

And then people would have said: "Yeah, but what was it? Come on, we have a right to know."

First of all, there is no common knowledge that he is off. There is a suspicion that he is in dispute with the club. In the light of that, and given that this is Gareth Hock we are talking about - whose history the Wigan fans know only too well - can you genuinely not see that there might be some things the club may not be happy talking about in public? Serious question.

I appreciate that there are some things better left unsaid by a club, for some reason I can only think of roberto mancini as a good example of how not to address things, but the past three weeks have been a little bit embarassing. Probably due to the fact I socialise with Leeds & Saints fans and work with Reds fans. Who have mightily taken the urine.

How many times do you see that players are disciplined by clubs in the press? If we'd just have had that- or a statment denying the allegations it would have given us more to go on. And whinge about (if a reprimand was denied we'd be cursing SW for a lack of balls).

I suppose the exposure football/cricket/RU get on sky sports news means you want something similar from RL... Instead of silence two weeks before the season kicks off.

If his departure had been confirmed before now we'd have a wonderful thread on how to spend the salary!

Given they don't respond to rumour and speculation there isn't really anything else to say. He was asked the question he played it back the way they always do.



There obviously is something going on, but the time to say something is when the issue is sorted one way or another. As an employee of the club, Hock has the right for the club to say absolutely nothing about him until he isn't here one way or another.

I'm not quite sure what rival fans have got to extract the urine about - other than a Wigan player notorious for giving his club a headache, has now given them another one (in his own inimitable way, right at the start of the new season) ... which is hardly Wigan RL's fault.

I'm also not sure how the club have handled this badly. In truth, we don't know how they're handling it, as they are clearly not yet in a position to tell us. But to be honest, you got it right in your first sentence - there are some things better left unsaid. Unless you're completely prepared to dismiss that notion, which you obviously aren't, then I don't understand the insistence on a public statement.

So you want Wigan to announce something (That legally or whatever they may not be in a position to do) just to save you from embarrassment in front of some work mates?
And the day Rugby League spends more time talking about what happens off the pitch ala Football than what happens on it because the game is that Boring is the day I stop watching!

Sometimes I get the feling that some people would rather we had a "Virtual" game played through Social Media than an actual game on the pitch!

The reason everything is all based on 'assumption' is because the club are not making any official statements on the situation. I accept they may not have all the details or want to wash their dirty laundry in public but there is clearly something going on as the whole rhetoric around Hock had him going to Parra and now Widnes. If these stories or rumors are making the national papers and virtually every other media outlet in RL then they can't be far off the mark IMO.

I would like to reiterate the points on selling merchandise and season tickets off the back of the clubs ambitions for this season made a earlier in this thread. Fans commit their hard earned cash off the back of the clubs ongoing ambitions and player recruitment/retention in the main. Our recruitment has been poor IMO and the the departure of many experienced players has left us thread bare yet SW thinks our squad looks stronger than last year?



I have made the point several times on here over the last twelve months but IL is a business man and as stated in 2011 the club is now making a profit. With the departure of key players on large contracts and the sale of JT their is now even more potential of increased revenue and profit margins. The club may have made investments in other areas - facilities, backroom staff etc but it certainly isn't in the playing roster.

I seriously hope they prove me wrong this season, however if we fall short again i think heads will roll!!

Or Tittle Tattle even?

Tickle tackle sounds better... But not with RG obviously!!!!

Last week he was moaning about not finding gay men in brothels and now he wants to tickle tackle!

Well he is from St Helens *lights touch paper and runs away*

Last season ended on a big downer - losing in two semis, all those players leaving, etc. The club showing no sign of buying in big name replacements (mainly because none were available). I'm not sure how any fan could seriously turn round and say they'd been tricked into buying a season ticket and a new shirt.

FWIW, I do agree that heads will probably roll if this season goes bellyup.

I agree.

But "the heads should roll" depends on the guy at the top. I suspect 'he' is more interested in not losing money, than a succesfull Wigan.