Re: Zak Hardaker - Statement : Thu Sep 04, 2014 1:15 pm  

rhino phil wrote:

that would be fine if the RFL had charged hardaker but they havent. Instead the RFL took the conscious decision to release his name to the media as under investigation for homophobic abuse. Thats akin to the police naming a criminal before he has been charged. even then anything should be sub judice. The RFL suggest their panel has a quasi legal function and it should behave as such. They must be worried now about a defamation claim. In fact theres every reason for them to want him to be guilty because if not heads will have to roll. I would be amazed if Leeds and/or Zak didnt escalate this to the Court of arbitration for sport as this has been amateur hour from start to finish and he and the club have a reputation to protect.

Does this mean that players can't be named before they go before the disciplinary then? Or a CLUB named as being under investigation for their fans behaviour, or a coach....... you see where this is going?
This is not a criminal matter so comparing it to the police naming an (alleged) criminal is pointless.
As for being worried about a defamation claim
And there's Leeds fans claiming that fans of other teams are blowing this out of proportion

Re: Zak Hardaker - Statement : Thu Sep 04, 2014 1:26 pm  

Mark Aston has called for a vote of no confidence in the RFL not about the Hardaker thing ,but it looks like the game I headin for turmoil under this lot

Re: Zak Hardaker - Statement : Thu Sep 04, 2014 1:30 pm  

jools wrote:

Does this mean that players can't be named before they go before the disciplinary then? Or a CLUB named as being under investigation for their fans behaviour, or a coach....... you see where this is going?
This is not a criminal matter so comparing it to the police naming an (alleged) criminal is pointless.
As for being worried about a defamation claim
And there's Leeds fans claiming that fans of other teams are blowing this out of proportion

Zak Hardaker has been tried condemned and lynched over the social media already so if the RFL do take him t?o a disciplinary I can see he and the club taking it higher because they wont believe he will get a fair hearing after this.By the way have you been reading some of the stuff that's been posted about him and his club?

Re: Zak Hardaker - Statement : Thu Sep 04, 2014 1:36 pm  

lionarmour87 wrote:

Mark Aston has called for a vote of no confidence in the RFL not about the Hardaker thing ,but it looks like the game I headin for turmoil under this lot

This is probably the straw that broke the Camels back.
The RFL have been a mess for a while, and GH has been one of theirs strongest supporters, not any more.

Re: Zak Hardaker - Statement : Thu Sep 04, 2014 2:05 pm  

Somebody told me the senior management at redhall are very highly paid with decent pensions. You may ask whats that to do with the Hardaker situation . I may well reply that if you pay high salaries and wages you should expect efficiency and professional expertise .

Re: Zak Hardaker - Statement : Thu Sep 04, 2014 2:06 pm  

Gotcha wrote:

What a ridiculous post. Don't know much about it him, don't see him much, but yet you come out with rubbish like that. Of course his reputation has been questioned, if the press are making him out to be homophobic without proof of it. Once is honest mistakes, twice is always taken more literally by others.

Zak's just served a 5 match ban after he admitted an offence of homophobic abuse.

He's been back less than a month and he's blowing a kiss at an opponent and then shouting something at him, something which many people have argued could be another homophobic comment.

The RFL haven't created this mess, Daft Zak has.

I definitely think the RFL has made mistakes after the incident, but so has Zak and so have Leeds. Zak's one of the daft twitter lads who are asking for trouble by being so accessible. Zak could have made a statement saying he didn't call him a puff and saying what he did say. He never did that. He seemed to try and brush it under the carpet and said him and Flanagan laughed about it after the game.

Leeds haven't said that he never made the comment, they are just complaining about the process and seem to be hoping that a lack of any proof will mean he gets off.

IMO Zak's reputation is the same as it was. He's just added another incident in his rap sheet.

I don't think anyone comes out of this with credit.

Re: Zak Hardaker - Statement : Thu Sep 04, 2014 2:07 pm  

Backwoodsman wrote:

Somebody told me the senior management at redhall are very highly paid with decent pensions. You may ask whats that to do with the Hardaker situation . I may well reply that if you pay high salaries and wages you should expect efficiency and professional expertise .

or is it high salaries indicates a 'managerial/ director role in the normal world. The old adage of people who cant get promoted comes to mind!!!!

Re: Zak Hardaker - Statement : Thu Sep 04, 2014 2:18 pm  

Backwoodsman wrote:

Somebody told me the senior management at redhall are very highly paid with decent pensions. You may ask whats that to do with the Hardaker situation . I may well reply that if you pay high salaries and wages you should expect efficiency and professional expertise .

Gary Hetherington is one of the people I respect most in RL. I think he's worked from nothing to earn his position as one of the most powerful people in the game. I think his achievements at Sheffield and Leeds put him up as a RL great. I think he's earned a lot of money from RL, I think he's earned every single penny of it.

But IMO Gary has still screwed up as well over this incident. It's easier to hammer the RFL because they are generally faceless backroom men and do work no one sees. The RFL organised a great World Cup that probably shocked most people, but that credits faded to nothing already.

I think RL is utterly screwed if there's this much fighting over something as stupid as this.

If this had happened in football I can understand the pressure. In football gay rights campaigners would have been picketing Wembley to demand action because it has the profile. But I doubt anyone in the gay rights lobby even cares about this nonsense. We're doing all this nonsense ourselves.

Re: Zak Hardaker - Statement : Thu Sep 04, 2014 2:29 pm  

The RFL did one great thing during the WC, that was to put Sally Bolton in charge and mostly leave it to her. They deserve credit for that, and had it been rubbish they would take the blame so they should rightly take the plaudits

However they promptly lost her, made no headway at all in capitalizing on it, made a complete clusterfsk of any legacy, managed to go in to the WC with absolutely terrible press and completely split game, have forced through a controversial and unpopular change (not necessarily a bad thing) then mortgaged the future on a tv deal which isnt that great. They have alienated huge parts of the game.

Wigan have publicly voiced displeasure, Salford barely have day when not taking a shot at the RFL, Hull FC and Hull KR have been critical aswell. This isnt to say the were necessarily wrong on those (though i believe they largely are) they simply arent leading. Every little thing they are doing is blowing up in their faces because they have created and angry and fractured game who simply don't respect them.

I honestly would not be surprised if after a few years of this new structure, if it appears to be a failure, we dont see another breakaway. If the RFL alienate Leeds, there is really on St Helens as an ally. There is almost a competition to be made out of clubs who have publicly stated their opposition to either the #RFLnewera or the RFL themselves.

Re: Zak Hardaker - Statement : Thu Sep 04, 2014 3:22 pm  

You only need to look at the farce of the points deductions for Batley & Doncaster to see how well run the RFL is.