Then we screw ourselves in the process having a marquee contract taken up by someone who's not even playing for us.

Longer term we screw ourselves even more if we just let this slide.

I agree with your sentiments. But how to deal with it must have an emphasis on what's is the best course of action for the club moving forward. I don't see how tying a marquee spot to a player who doesn't play benefits the club.



I honestly see your point. But from what I can gather, if Hastings is looking to 'rip up his contract' his people must find grounds in there to do so. Then the club need to decide what they want. I personally wouldn't want him anywhere near us if he doesn't want to play for us. I can't see a drastically unhappy player playing to the best of their ability. Sooner free up the cap and go after someone who wants to represent Wigan correctly.

Other option could be a lengthy costly court case.



I can see it being a mutual agreement to let Hastings go.

Unfortunately, I think Hastings holds the aces in this case.

Wigan can’t actually stop him from signing for someone else. If he signed for another SL club, the RFL could refuse to register him. But it wouldn’t be Wigan’s decision. Similarly, the NRL might refuse to register him to play for an NRL club, but again that’s not up to Wigan.

The best option Wigan have is to take legal action against Hastings for BoC. But they’ll need to prove a quantifiable financial loss, which they can’t do. He’s also in Australia, and therefore it’s complex to take action through an ET. You can’t even go after any future club, unless you can prove they induced him into a BoC.

Put simply, Wigan can’t force him to work for them. Sure, they can appeal to the RFL and NRL not to allow him to register elsewhere, but that might not hold sway if Hastings himself claims a BoC by Wigan. He could then take action against the RFL/NRL for a restraint of trade.

And on the matter of payment, as soon as Wigan don’t pay him, he’s no longer and employee and can do whatever he wants. Wigan have nowhere to go here. If he doesn’t want to work for Wigan, the club can’t make him. They could try to stop him signing elsewhere and sue him for BoC, but both are likely to fail.

Good post.

Which basically means if Hastings doesn't want to play for Wigan, Wigan's best bet is to cut ties and free up the marquee spot until someone worthy becomes available. It's a sad state of affairs yet again for our club.

Pretty certain a UK contract carries no weight in Australia.......

Pretty certain James Segeyaro thought that too...and he ended up in the wilderness for 6 months.

Oh yes, from Dec 2016 until March 17, he was right in that wilderness...... until he signed for Cronulla at the start of the NRL season.



Leeds held all the cards then, too....

Yeah, right! Once Leeds didn’t pay him, his contact became null and void and he signed for Cronulla.

Now if Wigan want to carry on paying Hastings, they can try and claim he is their employee. But they won’t, because it’s ridiculous.

It’s just not legal for a company to force someone to work for them. It can’t be done.

Hastings doesn't turn up, then he is disciplined and fined. I seem to recall Joel Tomkins was fined, Bateman was fined and suspended, Carlos Tevez was fined by Man City for not playing. None of them had their contracts deemed null and void.

We don’t actually know when Hastings contract starts. He may not be in breach of anything if it only starts in Jan.

You can’t fine someone who doesn’t consider themselves to be an employee though.

he remains on the transfer list and is available to anybody who makes an acceptable offer.”



Hetherington confirmed Rhinos are also pursuing a separate action against the Papua New Guinea international for breach of contract.



Segeyaro joined Rhinos on loan from Penrith Panthers in July and signed a long-term contract two months later, but declined to return from a break in Australia, saying he had been homesick during his time in Leeds.



The Rhinos chief said there is now no possibility of the two parties getting back together. “James himself, through his manager, cancelled his contract by writing to us and confirming he would not be fulfilling the remainder of his contract,” Hetherington stated.

The writing was on the wall after the grand final. All the interviews he gave you could tell he didn’t want to play for Wigan.

I believe all super league conttacts run from 1 november to 31 october,unless a player moves mid season

For me Hastings is a Wigan player until I hear otherwise from him or the club.



I'm not gonna get too worked up that he hasn't changed his Twitter bio while he's on his holidays.

Moley commented couple of hours ago that he’s probably coming but needs to sort out couple of issues in his contract. My guess is something to do with money

IF there is any mileage in this at all then we need to be looking for a replacement now.



I assume he already has a verbal deal in place with someone else for 2021 and no doubt due to player movement etcthe potential to sign early has become a reality.



He never seemed to be fully committed to the move despite signing in my opinion.



He is a fantastic player but if his head is elsewhere we need to be covering all bases to find an alternative. If we can locate a replacement then let him go.



Using a marquee spot on someone whose mind is elsewhere for me isn’t an option.



This is of course assuming there is some truth in it, which to be fair their does seem to be.

It's funny how we all bought into the story that Hastings was one of the good guys.



Clearly, he's one of the good guys if he's getting loads of money. If he's not, he's just like all the rest.



If he does end up coming here, I strongly hope it's for no more than one season. I'm all for players getting well paid, but anyone who's happy to publically blackmail the club like this when he's already signed a contract is the wrong fit. As someone else said, I'd start the search for his 2021 replacement at the very first opportunity and I wouldn't even try to hide it.

If he does come for 2020 (by some miracle, as I highly doubt it now) then he’s only himself to blame for the inevitability of the fans getting on his back if he isn’t firing on all cylinders.

His relative silence whilst constantly posting pictures and cryptic messages on his social media have made him look a selfish and ignorant prat.



Shame clubby didn’t clock him a bit harder, in that play off game.

I think Wigan need to cover all bases in case he never turns up.

Richie Myler is available...........

We’re ok for ball boys thanks

The cynical side of me thinks that if there was nothing to these rumours surely the lad himself would’ve addressed them by now...



It’s so frustrating that you’ve got a genuine world class player like Maloney coming over to Catalans and getting stuck in with no dramas, and a big club like us, have someone who’s not fit to lace Maloneys boots potentially try and back out of a deal.



Whatever happens from here this situation has done no favours for the club what so ever.