oh ok, so the next time a player leaves you have a ready made argument? But of course, he won't give the real reason, cause a "deal has been done"...

Its a shame because two of the best forwards in SL were available mid season in Manu and Ellis. Our pack looks shockingly lightweight this year. Mossop, Prescott, Luauaki, Flower, Dudson? Avearge SL players at best. In the past two years weve lost Fielden, Coley, Lima, Hock and Hoffman and havent found adequate replacemants, a lot of hope will be put on Taylor, lets hope he is up to it!!

Maybe, but what is very strange is that every player I know who has played under Wane has spoken highly of him (even those who have left the club).

Presume what you like.

"Every player I know" key phrase in the sentence.

For those saying "you don't know what happened" - FFS, Wane is his boss, as is IL. You do as you're told in the workplace. Unless they've made some totally unreasonable demand such as "do 5 laps, 50 burpees and eat your dog", he has NO excuse for this behaviour.

If he doesn't get on with Wane or his methods he needs to grow up and realise you don't always get on with colleagues, but you still make sure you do your job. If it's down to a bigger bust-up he needs to grow up, get over it and learn how to repair relationships. If it's over losing the No.12 shirt he needs to grow up and realise the club won't sit around waiting for him to decide if or when he's going to Australia. If it's down to his social life and outside influences he simply needs to grow up. His short RL career will be ending in a few years and he's fast becoming another "could have".

Normally I wouldn't be bothered and say it's his life and just a job at the end of the day, and I'd wish him well, but the time, faith and money Wigan have invested in him deserves more.

For me he's acting like a spoilt brat. He's always come across as thinking he's top dog and now he's shown his true character for all to see. What a shame, he could have been so much more.

Until someone has the balls to spill what they "know", Hock has just gone into the "sadly gone but not fondly remembered" folder.

What if the issue wasn't work related?

It will be interesting to see how Farrell/Tuson handle the extra responsibility. I think both have looked better when they've played long periods so this is a perfect opportunity to showcase their talents and claim spots for themselves (especially Tuson who is out of contract this year I believe). If the rumours (sorry the dreaded r word again) of HH going to NZ at the end of the year are true then what was our strongest position imo will look very thin.

Any chance of you actually PMing what you are hinting at to give us all a more informed view of what's (allegedly) gone on?

Saints Pack: Puletua,Perry,Laffranchi,Louie,Walmsley,Clough
Warrington Pack: Morley,Hill,Waterhouse,Harrison,Carvell
Leeds: Bailey,Peacock,Liuluai(sp),Griffin

Wigan going to strugle this year?

If it's completely non-work related and didn't affect his job in the slightest then there shouldn't be a problem. Bearing in mind his job involves representing the Wigan club both in and out of work, looking after himself physically, avoiding certain substances and generally not bringing himself or the club into disrepute.

And there do seem to be work issues at play, regardless.

PM me what you think has happened and if I agree I'll take it all back and support you without disclosing it. At the moment I'm pretty disgusted with him.

Well, you don't mess with your Bosses wife / daughter / son either.

If so, prepare to be underwhelmed.

Shocking.

The comments made by Lenegan about leadership under Madge and Wane tell the story in full for me.

Sorry to say this but from the press release alone Hock is coming across as a selfish idiot and after all we have done for him its disgusting.

I do like that fact that we are preventing him for playing/signing for another club and stating quite bluntly the negative reasons why whithout being slanderous. Its very sad that a player of his talent thinks he is bigger than the club as he has probably put a huge black mark against his name now from others.

Shame on you Hock!!!

Sam doesn't have a problem with the coach, neither do O'Loughin or Charnley. Real *star* players. Feel free to whisper about something that a reserve player's girlfriend's hairdresser told you but for IL to put out a statement like that tells me that IL had to deal with this prick from day one.

Johnnie Cochran couldn't convince me Hock is in any way innocent.

I would have preferred him off the books and in Australia, seeing him get thrashed at Widnes will lose entertainment value through the season. But what a prick.

It's a good job the forum moderators didn't catch a glimpse of IL's statement before he put it out!

Unless IL was seeking legal advice before now I still don't understand why we weren't informed of this. Were we desperately trying to flog him over the last four weeks? Widnes seem to be happy in the knowledge they've signed a .

I think you've answered your own question there. Either that, or Wigan were not happy saying Hock had gone to Widnes until he actually had.

Legal advice shouldn't take that long!

Seriously, we can't ship him off to Oz, we've just outed him as a bigger prick than before and we've loaned one of his few remaining prime years (although injury impaired) to Widnes. The only possible place for him to go next year is Leeds...

At a massive knock-down price.

Absolutely.

The reason it was so detailed was in my opinion because IL felt he had to (or wanted to) justify losing Hock to the fans. IL knows we all know who has left our squad recently and he knows Hock is a bit of a fans favourite as well as being a current International. You can't just let such a player leave with a one line press announcement so this long statement is the result and is an effort to explain it all to the fans.

What this saga also shows once and for all is contracts are not, as we are often, told worthless. Hock has tried to leave Wigan even trying to engineer the sack to do so but Wigan were having none of it. All what Wigan have been able to do here is because Hock has a contract with Wigan.

I did try and tell you all in another thread but was shot down for knowing.

I could explain the whole thing in finite detail to you but i will leave it for now.

The issue is Definately with Mr Hock and not the Wigan club, who have as stated given him 2 large pay rises recently on the threat of him leaving for another local Super League club.

Its definately nothing to do with anything recreational as some may think but purely down to Mr Hock wanting to leave badly enough, starting with him losing his shirt, not being released and not turning up for Pre-season thus leading to a bust up with Wane.

Wigan have known since late December he wouldnt play for them again.

The silver lining??? one or two of the current squad who are rumoured to be leaving this year may just be anouncing contract extensions in the near future after Wigan have just released some salary cap!!

watch this space!

[uJohnny Headline[/u-Bringing you the truth, the hole truth an nothing but the truth!!!!!!

Are you serious?

You've seen what's been said, he wanted to go, Wigan were trying to arrange the move, it fell through.
The Oz club came back with a bigger offer, Wigan were interested, Gaz Hock wasn't.

Xmas comes and goes and he doesnt report back for training/rehab and his Agent & he decide to tell Wigan club they don't want to play for Wigan again.
2/3 weeks to sort out move to Widnes, job done, statement made!

What do you suggest? Should he be Tweeting the ongoing personal disucssions?
Blogging it? Maybe set up a Faecebook page were we can invite Friends etc to join in?

FFS - It's a legal matter between club & player and discussions cannot be held through the media and certainly updates given to the public in the media.

From what I know good on IL for dealing with the issue in the manner he has, it potentially would have been easier to try once again to accomodate him and where would that have left team Morale,standards at the club etc?

No-one at Wigan would want a fully focussed and behaving Gaz Hock at the club and you can bet your life that IL wouldn't want to lose him.
But sometimes it just gets to a situation where enough is enough and to me that time has passed.

It seems pretty clear from IL's statement that Gareth Hock will not be going to any of the clubs perceived to be among our main rivals.

I would say that's about as close to the truth as anyone needs to get and come to the same conclusion that IL did!
PS
Lets hope that the contract extensions with certain individuals goes well as for me those players will be worth far more to Wigan over the next 3 years on/off the field.

Just glad that everything's out in the open now and we can move on. He's an exceptional talent but he lacks class and brains which as been highlighted here. The club and the fans couldn't have done anymore for him over the years and in truth he's never really given anything back. He's shown glimpses of his ability and he looked to be adding some consistency but he's always been a ticking timebomb.

Cold hard facts from Hocks time in Wigans first team is ZERO major trophies in his 7 or so seasons. The only time we've won major honours since he made his debut was whilst he was banned. We won a grand final without him and a challenge cup without him (although his ban had ended) so there's certainly no doom and gloom from me.

I just hope 'all' the players are on the clubs side here.

In the RED corner



And in the Blue corner



Opinions and conjecture.

Love it.

It will be extremely interesting to see how he performs at another club.
He undoubtably has talent and the physical presence, but so much of his game was based around his agressive mental attitude that will have come down to attaining this attitude at a much higher level due to the fact he was playing for his home town club.
He was obviously very proud to play for Wigan and had the attitude to match his ability.

Will he be able to generate that attitude for another club? from his performances in the end of season internationals I would say that is a question that may not be answered in his favour.

If he cannot generate that attitude (and playing against Saints or Wigan(I know he cant) I have no doubt that he will be able to do so) on a consistent basis his career will go even further down the toilet.