IF Cas were told about this a few weeks ago, have they brought the game into disrepute and should any action be t, I believe that they would have known and then it comes down to whether they have followed the correct procedure.

Steve Gill comes across as a decent honest guy so I would give him the benefit of the doubt TBH.

Would the club not be informed immediately, when a player fails a drugs test or, would it be down to the player to inform his employer.

I genuinely don't know.

Cas have a history of accepting poor behavior, Chambers, Owen, Moore, Tansey, Chase and of course Hardacre to name a few, I would suggest that is an epidemic. As for Gill he palmed of Owen, Moore Tansey knowing they were damaged goods, they turned a blind eye to Chase`s poor behavior and then allowed Widnes to cop for him. Now there are obvious suspicions that they allowed Hardacre to play knowing he had failed a sample A drug test. Plus there is the rumor that it was more than just Hardacre involved, just that the others were not tested.
For me you reap what you sow so I have no sympathy for Cas, their track record is appalling. So much so that it would be a disgrace if Peter Box continued with his plans to give Cas a civic reception at Wakefield tax payers expense in honor of a team who have again benefited from allowing drug cheats to represent them.

Remind me who to?!? Good god man.

Remember when you had Johnson? Cockayne? Smith ? Locke?

Grow up.

Sorry Belly. He's absolutely right.
You could add Sculthorpe and the NZ hooker who's name eludes me.
To be fair we took on Cockayne after issues but there were no problems while he was here.

Credit where it's due - belly is smarter than the average troll...

Surely if Cas knew about an impending ban for Zak that we would have given Eden more then 1 training session at full back ! And also why would Zak of tweeted on Wednesday of grand final week that he was excited for Saturday ? He was also very close to winning man of steel on the Tuesday. If the RFL knew this, surely he wouldn't have been allowed to be involved ?!

Hence my earlier question, " What would have happened if Hardaker had won the MoS?"

Do you believe that Cas were unaware Hardaker may have failed a test after the Leeds game?

I'm sure Hardaker knew & he could be in a whole lot of bother, maybe he thought he'd dodged a bullet, or maybe he just doesn't think.

For all I know they both might have known & hoped it would at least come to light after the G.F.

Either way, I bet last Thursday was a joy Darn't Lane.

Belly though, he does go from one extreme to the other as far as Cas is concerned

The only way I can get my head around this is that.....

If he was tested after the Leeds game he must have had an idea whether he was going to fail it.

Since no time frames have been given out (although I'm sure someone on here has heard of from his mum's best mates aunties parrot) I can only assume that Zak has taken the stuff a number of days previously and has said that there's a possibility of him failing.

I think it stays in your system about a week???? So, let's say he was tested Thursday night but took it the previous Friday....

With a grand final coming up this is probably why cas didn't suspend him on the spot. I don't think many clubs would suspend one of their key players before a GF until it was official. Plus it doesn't look great as an employer, if you suspend him and it comes back clean.

A ban is not issued by the authorities until it has been confirmed after testing the A and B samples, hence he was eligible to play until 10am last Thursday when the failed test was confirmed.

Like I say, I'm merely speculating.... But there must have been a significant gap between him taking the drugs and getting tested. I'm sure cas will have been aware of the test, and I'm sure Zak will have commented on it. If it was blatantly obvious he was going to fail they'd have blooded Eden a little better.

Claims that saints should, what, sue someone? Are pretty desperate.

And you wonder why people don't post

Too far Belly.
I'm sure I don't need to explain.

As another well known millionaire would say, "fake news"
You really should start writing novels although JK Rowling has nothing to fear.

How was it fake when it was correct?

Regarding whether Cas knew or not, I'd have thought immediately after a positive test is received, the player would be informed and then his employers, in this case Cas, would be informed straight after the player, the club/player could then decide whether to launch an appeal. My guess is that Cas knew a fair while since. Plus the fact that if I was in the position that Zac found himself I'd have informed Cas as soon as I had given my first sample, assuming he'd not forgotten he'd taken it.

Just to clarify: He got TESTED on the 8th September. He didn't get the results that day to say he had failed. The sample is taken in front of a tester who then sends it away for analysis in a lab, where it is tested for a number of different drugs and the results sent to UKDA and then the RFL. Clearly this process took a matter of weeks. This is just like Adam Walker failing a test from the 14th July and not getting suspended until 4th August (3 exact weeks). He failed a test from that date because that's the date he was tested and the sample he was taken, not the date of failure. No club will suspend any player until they have written notification of the failed test, and no club will sack a player until they've been banned and both samples have come back positive to protect themselves legally. Rangi and Walker have not received any form of punishments yet. Also, Walker has not been sacked as of yet but he has been suspended as with Hardaker: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/40834496. We're all in the same boat with these three. Until the situation is clear with a) both test results and b) the length of ban, they will remain suspended. There's every chance the B sample, no matter how small, may come back OK. By far the interesting thing in this case is that Walker and Rangi were stated as failing for coke, whereas Cas and the RFL have said 'banned substance'. I know other articles link coke to it but just seems weird that it hasn't been mentioned officially. Potential bone of contention?

Just to clarify: He got TESTED on the 8th September. He didn't get the results that day to say he had failed. The sample is taken in front of a tester who then sends it away for analysis in a lab, where it is tested for a number of different drugs and the results sent to UKDA and then the RFL. Clearly this process took a matter of weeks. This is just like Adam Walker failing a test from the 14th July and not getting suspended until 4th August (3 exact weeks). He failed a test from that date because that's the date he was tested and the sample he was taken, not the date of failure. No club will suspend any player until they have written notification of the failed test, and no club will sack a player until they've been banned and both samples have come back positive to protect themselves legally. Rangi and Walker have not received any form of punishments yet. Also, Walker has not been sacked as of yet but he has been suspended as with Hardaker: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/40834496. We're all in the same boat with these three. Until the situation is clear with a) both test results and b) the length of ban, they will remain suspended. There's every chance the B sample, no matter how small, may come back OK. By far the interesting thing in this case is that Walker and Rangi were stated as failing for coke, whereas Cas and the RFL have said 'banned substance'. I know other articles link coke to it but just seems weird that it hasn't been mentioned officially. Potential bone of contention?

Surely these players knew that they would fail as they knew they taking the drug before the testing. Wouldn't it not be the right thing for the player to tell the club?

They could have been rolling the dice, like they might have done previously. If they hadn't had much, it would be out of their systen in 2-3 days. If they've been on a bender mind it could be in their systen a week or more.

May have thought he'd left enough of a gap between taking it and playing the game but got it wrong. Also no guarantee he'd be the player tested after the match, maybe he was picked out to be tested the previous game or so and thought he wouldn't be picked out this time.

He obviously didn't inform Cas before the game imo because they wouldn't have risked him in a game that was a dead runner for them having already wrapped up the LLS.

There's about 100 more interesting thing involving this. That wording is only interesting if you're a Cas fan who is completely delusional and desparately looking for something to cling on to.

See this is where I take issue with the outpourings of sympathy and demands for support - I'm willing to bet that Hardaker is not a hardcore drug user, constantly self-medicating to escape the joyless ennui of his miserable life; he is in fact, most likely, a young bloke who, like many other young (and many not so young) blokes, likes a bit of sniff to fuel a night of drinking, dancing and, with some luck, shagging. I have no fundamental issue with that - the vast majority of people who do so fund it themselves, and are no detriment to society other than by accident, because their drug of choice has been forced into the hands of crims, whose activity in producing and distributing it causes harm. That's a separate issue though, which could be deemed political, and is therefore prohibited on this forum and will cause Poptart to behave like a Spanish policeman at an illegal referendum.

So - like many other people, Hardaker decided to have a night on the disco sherbet; as a pro sportsman, he knows its on the banned list and he knows the consequences - he also knows he is subject to testing; that being the case, he should also know how to flush it from his system - or not to bother taking it on that particular occasion. The fact that he didn't do either of those things demonstrates that he's an idiot - and I'm not sure what support the RFL, RL itself, or Castleford Tigers, can offer for that affliction beyond what they've already done - and if you include Leeds in that list - he's had more support than most angry young men could ever hope to have.

If you have no issue with taking the white stuff if they are funding it themselves, then tell a young lady who I know with two young kids, who was knocked about by this type of person. No sympathy here for the low life’s