1) Hastings was not sacked by Easts and Manly because he couldn't play football .. he was sacked because he was a repeat offender numbnut.
2) 3 times he was brought up into the top squad .. and 3 times he was sent back to Blacktown for being a disruptive numbnut.
So the question that the re-writers of history have to ask themselves is
Q) how much of a disruptive influence would a player have to be to make the unflappable captain DCE so irate that he would front the guy physically in his hotel room ..
And then ask yourselves that once that had happened are you going to support your million dollar a year Captain, the Qld Captain and Australian half ... or the disruptive numbnut ..
There was only ever going to be one solution .. and thank goodness that Hastings went away, grew up and started to achieve his goals .