I think that most of us on here want Hardaker to be fit & playing for the Rhinos. I know that I certainly do.
But, & it is a big but because we have no knowledge of what has actually happened, I am dismayed that he does seem to attract trouble & all the wrong sorts of headlines.
As I said earlier you would think that the Rhinos, of all clubs, have sufficient outstanding role models that anybody with an ounce of common sense could see & learn how to conduct themselves on & off the pitch.

Don't think you are far wrong with any of that to be honest. The England incident was one blown completely out of proportion, and one the Leeds club have since recognised to Hardaker they dealt with harshly. Not to mention the fact England picked him again the year after, so hardly a bad incident to them, considering it was Hardaker who left that camp, not the thrown out as previously reported.

However, me personally, and without the facts to hand, find the current situation worse than the other incidents. And more to the point of that, the fact that whether right or wrong, his reputation was tarnished throughout last year, so the last thing you do is risk tarnishing it further. Get a grip of your life and live it squeaky clean, at least until other things are forgotten.

Every night I went out when I was a student at Leeds Uni I saw or was invloved in, or a mate got into, a dust up of some description. I was punched several times by random strangers in the Union and in various clubs, I've done a few things myself too. I don't know any of them that got as far as the police. Only a couple of the fights I saw involved RL players (my mate who played second row for the Uni was a bit of a nutter if someone was daft enough to have a pop at him, but otherwise harmless). Students are always kicking off.

Gotcha & Old Feller

Completely agree with you both there, however I believe the reason he seems to 'attract the wrong sorts of headlines' is a lot to do with the media (obviously himself too, he has to give them something to play with first of all), if you cast your mind back to the England incident a national Newspaper from then on labelled him 'England Bad Boy', which after one incident and the nature of that incident was an absolute joke, any little thing, gets jumped on and blown up. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying anything he may or may not have done it 'little' but because of the media giving out tags like that, this IMO is part of the reason these things get so much exposure. I remember when a certain now ex Castleford Tigers player got banned from xscape in Castleford and convicted of affray only a couple of years back, there was nowhere near this much publicity around it, okay he may not have at the time been on the same pedestal as Zak is, but he hadn't been labelled a national bad boy is my point.

Obviously yes its down to him from then on to avoid certain situations, but the next incident is then one which as I said in my previous post are being very hypocritical about in terms of counting it against him, so shouldn't be posting rubbish like 'one incident too many'

Where are the pictures / videos that you all refer to? I have not been able to find any when I have looked.

I have been in Leeds 11 years now, studying full time for 4 of those and studying part time for another 4 of them and I have never seen or been;

"involved in or a mate got into, a dust up of some description. I was punched several times by random strangers in the Union and in various clubs, I've done a few things myself too."

I'm not having a go at DHM here, but I guess if you are a quiet, meek person, you have quieter nights out with no drama. If you are a bit of a gob$hite 23 year old and on decent money and with lots of free time and think you are Jonny Big Balls in Leeds, living with a 19 year old who similarly has a lot of free time and a lack of tact or ability to weigh up risk then you probably will go out more and will get into more trouble when you do.

I'm not saying DHM is / was those things I am alluding to ZH and EM being above, but I was a million miles away from those things and I have never got in scrapes during my time in Leeds.

Players getting into scraps is not a new thing. Early to mid nineties in Cas used to be a right night out and both pro players and local amateurs used to get into scrapes all the time, usually by association with their original amateur clubs, against rivals, or local idiots trying to make a name for them selves.
Even Lancashire based players playing it with team mates from the area.
Our esteemed coach himself was in court and charges for fighting in Leeds city centre when at bradford. What ever zac may or may not be involved in, he won't be the last. If he is guilty what will sacking him do, unless the RFL decide to suspend/block him playing anywhere else.

As others have said pryce, cockayne, Owens,have all been involved in very serious assaulted and been allowed to get on with their career.

I've stumbled across an article from the YEP from last week that have the pictures on. You can tell it is ZH because of all the tats on his arms. Idiot!

didnt rangi chase get found guilty of breaking some lads jaw yes it was in aus but still played the next day after the court case against us in cup semi final. price,bailey and walker all been done give the lad a chance and if they have taken this long they cant have to good of a case. i know it was football but bowyer and woodgate which was a far more serious offences both played in fact bowyer played his best football in the time

Zak has been a daft lad to even put himself in this situation, regardless of its' outcome. People need to calm down a little though, he's young, he's obviously a bit daft, but there's worse people sailing through their Superleague careers having done a lot worse. I don't hear anyone abusing or condemning the likes of Greg Johnson at Salford, let's not forget this fella is not long out of clink after sexually abusing and then glassing a woman in the face nearly blinding her. I'm not condoning what Zak "may" have done, but while beasts like Johnson are allowed back into our game it seems a bit harsh preparing the gallows for one of the brightest young talents in British sport.

absolutely agree. Rival fans will want us to sack him so a) we become weaker as a team and b) they can sign him up and become stronger

I for one would be delighted if Zak is found not guilty and I do not agree that he is not that good a full back.
Not sure I would want to swap him with any other full back in this league.
And whilst I agree his record of getting sent home in a late night drinking session with England and a couple of homophobic insults made in the heat of the moment is thought to be not bad.
It brings shame to the club and does nothing for the youngsters who look up to Zak as a role model.
How do we know that the club may well have said to Zak that one more indiscretion and you are out of here?
What if there's more to what has been made public in the past that the club are keeping quiet?
Why was he out at 3am?
Yes it would be great if we could keep him. But how many more chances does he get and what does it say to his team mates if he is allowed to get away with yet another stupid act?
The sad thing is he could get snapped up by say Wigan that could make the difference to them winning a dam site more than us this year and years to come.
Bottom line is he has let everyone down who has stood by him whether found guilty of assault or not.
But for those jumping on the bandwagon saying he is not really good enough is IMO short sighted and totally out of order.

always been the case, I think even going back to Leeds's awesome pack under Graham Murray (RIP) there would be idiots in places like Majestic who would want to take on the likes of Moz / Baz / Newton , not something I'd ever contemplate doing, but some local 'hardcase' would always fancy their chances.

...we digress

All i can really say is i hope he has no case to answer.However,if he is guilty of what is being alleged then he has had his chances from the club already and he should be cut loose in my opinion.

Sometimes you can have all the talent in the world it seems but common sense cannot be taught.see Gareth Hock

you cant compare GH to ZH..... gaz has been an absolute tool his entire career. zak on the other hand has had a mere handful of issues, most of which can be put down to his age.

I'd generally support the club standing by Zak. They did the same for Bailey and Walker. However, he needs to sort out his priorities - does he want to be known as a great rugby league player or a complete d*ck..

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how often these incidents are in the early hours of the morning (same here in Australia) during the season. I know most players are full time nowadays, but it still strikes me as odd that clubs seemingly don't mind them going out till all hours getting bladdered. Its a bad look, can't do their bodies much good, and massively multiplies the chances of getting into trouble. I'm not saying they shouldn't be allowed out, but I'd hope with a bit of common sense we'd see far fewer incidents like this.

I certainly wouldn't like to, and am not comparing the two like for like but IF, and it still is an IF lets not forget,Zak is found guilty as charged then he appears to have similar amounts of common sense as mr Hock and fully deserves to be banded in the same category as a player who has unlimited talent but in the same breath unlimited amounts of brainfarts which cannot be tolerated by any respectable organisation.would you not agree?

not at all im afraid. the kids still young, if hes still doing stuff like this when hes 30 ill agree, but until then hes a young lad having fun. unfortunately this fun is putting himself in harms was, but its up to him. tbf, until we know all the details its all conjecture, so i could be defending a complete and you could be trying to sack an innocent man....

so IF being the word......

Looks at that opinion. Looks at the avatar.

Got to be a pi55 take, right?

One thing that has occurred to me this morning and it's something I've been guilty of amid all of this, is that a lot of us have posted saying things like he's stupid to put himself in this situation......

However if it was minchella that made the assault, what could he have done? This was 6 days before a game and he's entitled to be out until all hours, I've seen Watkins and many other players alike out until that time and beyond many a time, so until we know exactly what's happened I think we're wrong to say he's been stupid or daft to put himself in this situation after all he can't control the actions of another individual.

Yet another Hardaker related storm in a teacup. 1-0 to our nanny state, big brother is watching, modern ways. Guys like Kurt Sorensen, Kelvin Skerrett & Kev Ward must be p!ss!ng themselves at what the modern day player has to put up with.

Regardless of the rights or wrongs, I'm increasingly feeling that we've already seen the best of Zak in a Leeds shirt. Perhaps any shirt.

Indeed.

And I repeat, Leon Pryce is still playing in SL.

bleacherreport.com/articles/8870 ... fl-history Now this is a sport that knows a thing or two about bad boys.

bleacherreport.com/articles/8870 ... fl-history Now this is a sport that knows a thing or two about bad boys.

In another twist, and maybe Minchella's dad can help with this, as he doesn't seem to be posting, although maybe understandable. I am led to believe that the club were aware of this incident three weeks ago, when the person "allegedly" assaulted, reported it to the club. The police at that time were still deciding if it was worth pursuing.

The club, as they have done many times in the past, especially with the likes of Bailey and Delaney, decided it best just to let it lie, unless something came up. When it came up last week they took the action they did.

It is an hypocritical way to work if true, but no doubt repeated by all clubs I would guess.

Also seems strange why the police, would release photos to the media, when the person "allegedly" assaulted told them from day one about the Rhinos players.

Of course the above is actually assuming it is them after all this. Maybe they say it isn't them.

I'd imagine the police are looking for witnesses, hence releasing the pics.
IF the club had only received an uncorroborated complaint I wouldn't really expect them to act in public.
Confronted by photographic evidence that placed two players - or their doppelgangers - at the scene then I'd expect a different reaction.
Not hypocritical in my book.