@another-pom said in [Signing Suggestions & Rumours](/post/1311155) said:
A little update from the Wigan forum regarding Jackson Hastings. It seems that both he and Bevan French are still in Australia ....
* Hastings refused to come back to England's because Wigan refused to release him from his contract.
* Wigan then reluctantly agreed to let him stay in Aus longer.
* Wigan then informed French he could stay longer in line with Hastings stating longer.
* Thats why there is no talk of French being a dickhead.
* Hastings was supposed to fly home this weekend (Again) and so far has managed again to get out of doing so (third time)
Thats disappointing. All his talk of turning himself around, then he acts like this. If he has a contract he should honour it and only get out with an agreement from both sides.
If he does a runner I don't think he'll be signing with WT. When you have a top lawyer as your president and we've had 2 high profile walk outs, we can't benefit from this behaviour
If this story is true then signing Hastings would be a mistake
I agree. There's one potential mindset of "winning at all costs" and that may involve singing up bad eggs for the sole purpose of winning matches.
However Tigers in particular have been burnt several times by personal-brand footballers who are just looking for that next big score. Whilst I can recognise that any individual will look to do what is best for themselves, when you are developing any business, you need to anchor your team with a bulk of long-term team contributors.
If you only sign folks looking for top dollar or highest personal convenience, you are almost guaranteed they'll chase that top dollar again when their contract is next up, which in rugby league terms will be 2-4 seasons. And it may be naive to hope to find team-minded footballers in 2021, but you won't find sustained success without it.
This is particularly true for WT who don't quite have the deep pockets or private sponsorship capacity (at least not that we are aware of) of other clubs. And even a huge selling point for players - sustained success - puts you at a different disadvantage where you might no longer be able to pay the total money the players are demanding. So again it's in your interests to have footballers who are club-minded as well as personally-minded.
All that being a big rant from me, the behaviours of a player at their current club are a very good predictor of their future behaviour. It would be naive to think they'll change their stripes (pun intended) because your club is "different" to them. It may end up that way, but don't bet on it.
If Hastings is trying to wriggle out of his Wigan contract, even for the benefit of Wests Tigers, I am absolutely against it as a predictor of his future with us, a mid-tier success-starved club. And why I most respect any player, even potentially a Storm or Roosters player (when it's a much easier decision), who chooses to remain and develop their club when more money is on offer elsewhere.
