Cards on the table, I’ve never met Gareth Hock and I don’t much rate him as a player, much less an international player.
To my mind he is a modern day Roy Haggerty. Another marginal international, Haggerty was a rugged, give it all, second-row/centre in the St Helens dark-ages of the 80s.
As a Saints fan I loved his effort, thrilled at the extravagant and outrageous passes when they worked and shrugged them off when they didn’t. My guess is it’s much the same for Wiganners with Hock, who love the clattering tackles, the charges and the flicked-out passes, whilst ignoring the erratic discipline and clumsy physicallity.
In today’s ball-control era I don’t think Haggerty would have graduated from the Academy team; somehow Hock did though and therein lies the tragedy. Having carved himself an unlikely international niche, Hock now seems to have snorted it all away. How dumb is that?
With Hock’s A and B samples both testing positive for cocaine he is, now facing a 2-year ban. All of which confirms he has another Haggerty-like trait; a dumbfounding, almost naive, stupidity.
I went to school with Roy and I can say, tough as he was, he was rarely the sharpest tool in the bag (sorry Roy, Neil made me say it, honest).
Let’s hope Hock can turn this into a positive by illustrating the consequences of even casual drug use on self, family, friends and career.
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