No, i just think deeply and question everything.

It was fairly easy to see that Hastings does not want to come and never has just by going straight to the source himself and listening closely to him when he has been questioned about his move.

Im not saying he wont end up coming but theres no smoke without fire and he clearly holds no desire to play for Wigan.

I don’t get this opinion that he never wanted to come and has a dislike of Wigan. If he didn’t why did he sign on the dotted line in the first place? He’s mates with Lam, Hardaker, Gildart and Joe Burgess, so he’s not short of people to mix with.

He may have changed his mind based on an offer from back home but I doubt we held a gun to his head in the first place.

Just seen an Instagram picture of Hastings showing a bare piece of land saying ‘new house pending’ (looks a bit sunny to be Ince) Now the guy may be getting one built for when he goes back in a year or two but he’s literally making zero effort to dampen the flames, in fact with things like that he’s just throwing fuel on instead.

I usually try to ignore rumours and talk and focus on what's real; official announcements from the club or player.

But... this doesn't feel good. I've lost a lot of faith in the club with regards to contracts after the Edwards situation and now feel something isn't right with Hastings.

I could be wrong, but I don't think I've seen ANYTHING from him regarding him signing for Wigan, no pic in the kit, no interview no promo featuring him, no positive tweets or social media comments. Instead we see Jackson refusing to change his Insta bio, rumblings he's thinking of a U-turn, new housing comments when over in Oz; none of it looks positive. If Jackson is aware of all this, he should personally address it, all he needs to be is a tweet or post which takes literally 30 seconds to rubbish rumours and it's all put to bed; but he hasn't.

If we don't have Jackson for 2020 we're left in a right mess. We're already debating what to do with French, but having no Jackson leaves us without that dominate half at time in the year when recruiting that key player is increasingly difficult.

Shall we just ring Latrell Mitchell now?

If it's still bare ground, I'd be surprised if there was an inhabitable house there any time between now and mid-2020 at the earliest, but I'm finding it difficult to take comfort from that.

Considering he came over as such a decent bloke when he was at Salford, I have to say that I'm not getting that vibe at Wigan.

He's busy on Twitter, but never seems to mention his 'new club' - and now would be a particularly good time as the rumours are rife.

I won't pretend that I'm not getting a bit worried that we might have bought another lemon.

I agree. He could end all rumours in a single tweet. Yet he's failed to do so. He'll be fully aware of the rumblings. I'd like to know why he's not addressing it. Would take him all of 30 seconds.

Is he related to Shaun Edwards?

The fact that he is not denying it is worrying particularly as he is usually so active on social media.

Another potential embarrassing situation for Wigan.

Money makes people do all kinds of things they dont really want to do and then regret.

It's been well documented these last twelve months about him being "an honest and upstanding guy with good morals".

Let's see eh!

This is my take on it too

Hes portrayed himself as a bad lad turned a corner etc and specifically mentioned Lam as being an influential person in his life regarding that.

He still has sacks of credibility for the moment as these are all rumours. However if he jibs of Wigan then a lot of the stuff hes previously said counts for very little.

I think the stuff he has created at Salford is fantastic and he has acted like a real credit to the UK game IMO. However that image or legacy should be ripped up if he rescinds on a contract with Wigan.

And that not me saying boo hoo who, hes loves Salford but hates Wigan etc. Whilst i love our Club and i am fairly partisan about it, telling Wigan to eff off in Favour of an NRL clubs is a problem for all of SL.

Many fans will pop on here and take the pee out of Wigan for losing another signing and fair enough if that's your thing....

However the precedence of late across a LOT of UK teams regarding the likes of Denny Solomona, Kalum Watkins, Shaun Edwards and now maybe JH, shows that the UK game is a weakling in comparison to high level RU and NRL so we all really need to be a little more concerned about our sports inability to sell its virtues or to pay a fair salary for high profile stars.

I was fuming at what Cas had to go through with that merchant Solomona, i was embarrassed it what Edwards put us through and now i am dreading that another mid level NRL "Star" could walk out on a contract without playing a single game.

UK game is a mess at the moment and it will take more than SBW signing for a trillion dollars to convince me that we are in good health

He has a deal with Wigan and if he wants to back track on it and join an NRL club then he can only do it once his Wigan contract is cancelled.
He will have to negotiate that and it will may well prove more difficult than he at present imagines.
No NRL will sign him until his contract with Wigan is terminated.

This!

There could be a 'get out' clause in his contract. If so Jackson could activate it and leave his Wigan contract without further issue. Who knows what's in that contract.

The lad is a decent player but if his head has been turned by an NRL club i think youre better off without him, speaking from saints experience with ben barba ,as soon as he announced he was off to the cowboys in june last year he displayed a cant be d attitude and in hindsight we should have sent him on his way. Im not saying hastings will have the same attitude but its always a danger you could end up carrying a passenger on the team

In fairness to Watkins, his departure was if anything pushed by Leeds who were desperate to offload an under-performing high earner.
Agree with your point though; neither do I think too many from over here will take the pi$$ after James Segeyaro, Trent Merrin and that fat kiwi whose name escapes me...

Absolutely nailed it

You raise an excellent point there. I think Wigan are in a lose/lose situation; force him to come he plays poor and effects the whole team, let him go and it’s further evidence of the weakness of SL and RL in the UK as a whole.

For me, and I keep saying IF, IF it’s true we need to cut our losses and seek either a replacement or tune up Harry Smith for a lot more involvement than he, the club and the fans were expecting in 2020.

Surely the club wouldn't have included an 'immediate get out clause' in the contract (assuming we have one, you never know these days).

I'd like to think the NRL clause would only trigger after a first full season with us. Anything less leaves us with our pants pulled down and legs wide open.



Surely not.

Yeah Watkins maybe a tenuous link (speed typing whilst cramming lunch in), however the ones you quote are prime examples of this phenomenon. These guys are just treating SL with contempt. I will also add Chris Sandow to that list as i am sure he was claiming homesickness blah blah

Does my nut in and when i see "fans" on here almost siding with the players / Oz clubs claiming that "you cant blame the lad etc". We should be frothing at the mouth at the thought of loseing the talent pool to the NRL or Rugger bugger

Hopefully not mate! But you never know. I think if he huffs and puffs enough we'll let him go.

That's one perspective; another is that for 2020 SL has acquired arguably the biggest name in world rugby in SBW and the NSW starting half. That's never happened in history. Johns was signed brieflyby Wire, but the Maloney signing is somewhat different. Wire have also signed Gaz Widdop, an NRL starter who play with and against a whole host of top talent from the likes of Blake Austin and George Burgess who has been a regular in the NRL as is still yet to reach his prime in terms of age.
Watkins was/is a spent force, Leeds didn't want Kalum Watkins, that's what kick-started his move.

He only signed for us as Salford told him (at the time) they couldn't afford to keep him next year, Leeds wouldn't pay him as much as he was demanding and no Sydney NRL clubs were interested...we come along and offer him stupid money and a pass to leave after one year! I was reliably told he was absolutely fuming when we announced his signing, apparently part of the deal was that he didn't want anything at all announcing until the absolute end of the season and that is why he is categorically refusing to acknowledge Wigan. Wouldn't surprise me if we never see him in a Wigan shirt. Said all along we should have snapped up Maloney when we had the chance!

I don’t know what to make of this. It has been said publicly that he has a NRL release clause after his first year, not now.

This is a rumour that keeps coming back. Whether there is any substance or whether it is journalists who have nothing to write about I don’t know. I have a bad feeling about it though.

One thing is for sure, if he doesn’t want to be here I don’t want him here. I just wish he would come out and say either way.

If that’s true it’s poor form from IL. He should have respected that.