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Exactly OH, we did not want Offiah for his scooting/tackling. Feka is a similar luxury player who actually makes the job easier for the 3 other props doing more time. 15 minutes of Feka at his best takes it out of the opposition but I had reached the point after the semi where had he been dropped I would not have argued but I also feel he got worse under the Wigan conditioners.

That is the serious question TEW. Can this Wigan team afford a luxury player. Difficult question to answer IMO.

I have reached the hardly startling conclusion that trying to transform Feka into a prop that can play X amoubnt of minutes was/is totally misguided.

It is important that such players are used astutely re interchanges and not when we are defending for long periods. Based on the fact he is brought on after 20 minutes in each match that would suggest no thought is given to what is happening on the pitch, just the time on somebody's wrist watch.

TWO EYED WARRIOR wrote:Personally clarks summary is over simplistic, ok you gets what you pay for

feka is very flat footed in defence and is easily stepped he doesn't have great footwork.

The team a it stands cannot afford to carry players, especially in defence, we covered for tim smith and also for feka in this area

Barrie mcdermot was threatened with the boot at Leeds under graham Murray if he didn't improve his footwork, so he went away and worked on it", why should feka be treated any different by this club or is this a shining example of the club standards slipping ?

As CP pointed out we had offiah for his try scoring feats but the team he was in was extra special and wasnt strangled by the salary cap,

Feka didn't do well in the NRL as I think he was just too one dimensional

I think fans need to ask do we want success or crowd pleasers I know which I'd rather have

Don't think Phil was saying anything about Fekas overall performance. He was simply pointing out that we knew what we were getting when we paid for him and that is all he is delivering.

cpwigan wrote:That is the serious question TEW. Can this Wigan team afford a luxury player. Difficult question to answer IMO.

I have reached the hardly startling conclusion that trying to transform Feka into a prop that can play X amoubnt of minutes was/is totally misguided.

It is important that such players are used astutely re interchanges and not when we are defending for long periods. Based on the fact he is brought on after 20 minutes in each match that would suggest no thought is given to what is happening on the pitch, just the time on somebody's wrist watch.

Nobles alone which for me is why he is a coach with limited ability

He's still SHITE!

He wasnt being lazy when he chased down Anderson! I thought he had the best game this season for us! Some peopleon here r never happy.. :eusa17: Its gonna decend into a cliquey (sp?) slanging match all the time, worse than rlfans




(waits to be shot down in flames with arguements about free speach, opinions etc etc)

It was his best season in as long as I can remember Cherry especially after the Semi-final and why I made the thread.

I am not a fan of the interchange but it allows teams to use impact players. Even back in the day team tried to do so pre interchange. People remember Skerett. I can remember him playing for Bradford and when they had a monster pack Kel, David Hobbs, Jon Hamer did 80 minutes or as near graft but they often brought on Brandon Hill and he scored / set up tries. Sure defence was not his forte and he was far less athletic than Feka but he created mayhem.

One of my favouritwe Wigan players is Hock. Why did I like Hock? He was different, he could create sometyhing out of nothing. He was certainly not the best defender but that did not matter. We had players like Hansen, Lockers that would tackle forever.

Often it is about balance as a team. Ian Potter did the tackling, Andy Goodway did the running.

Without Hock this present team needs an X factor. feka provided that on Friday. He set Carmont, Sam T, Phelps and others free. If a player can get 3 or 4 defenders to tackle him and still slip a ball then there has to be room and opportunities out wide.

The big questions are why did Wigan 'try to reinvent the wheel' re conditioning. Big polynesians are genetically able to display great strength, great speed for weight for very short timespans. The longer they have to do something the more ineffective they become. They have poor endurance but great explosive power/speed. It struck me we were making Feka worse not better by ill judged conditioning.

Tactically, it cannot be right to bring him on according to the clock. His introduction/removal should be completely random as to what is happening within the game.

You might use 4 or 5 of your interchanges just with Feka. If we started the match very well and got a repeat set on the opposition line then you would bring Feka on after 5 minutes if need be. If after 10 minutes, the opposition had the ball and territory you bring him off. When Feka is on the pitch you should be looking to score points not defend. If we spent the first half under the cosh in our own 20 then you would not bring Feka on.

When we are defending then surely a small agile forward like Flannagan or Lockers should be alongside Feka.

Without Gaz Hock we need Feka to be Feka. We have lots of players who can do other things but we have few if any that can do what Feka can bring to the table. He is overpaid IMO. As is Fielden. That is the fault of Wigan RLFC not the 2 players.

TWO EYED WARRIOR wrote:My arguement with feka is simple, he is getting clattered by three players everytime and is predictable you will see the odd occassion where he can off load but it isn't enough, Morley just took his ankles on Friday and he went down very fast but takes along time getting up in order to capitalise on any yardage he may have made, for me feka needs to change his game otherwise, if as predicted noble is moved on feka will be very exposed to a new coach and his game plans especially if it is an Aussie coach as is being rumoured.

Maybe with a different coach Feka may not be a luxury, but a weapon lots of other teams don't have.
It all depends on how he is used, and how the other props around him can spell themselves.
For me, the biggest blight on the modern game is the 12 subs rule.
Prop forwards such as Andy Platt, Kelvin Skerrett, Kevin Ward, Ady Shelford, Les Boyd; (I could go on forever); would have smacked a coach who substituted them.

However the game has changed, and we have the opportunity to use it our advantage.
Feka is a great weapon when used in the right manner.
Why when we have 12 subs do we not keep giving him short, quick spells on the pitch as a rotation with our other 3 props?
Why on Friday against Warrington did we bring him off after 3 mins of the 2nd half? Is this the best way to use a player who can offer lots but only in short bursts?

TWO EYED WARRIOR wrote:

Don't think Phil was saying anything about Fekas overall performance. He was simply pointing out that we knew what we were getting when we paid for him and that is all he is delivering.

ian, appreciate what clarkie was saying hence why I say you get what you pay for

For me though the modern RL player has to be very adaptable and almost be able to multi task, feka is no doubt a crowd fav but I personally want much more from a player who is reputed to be very highly paid

hes only reputed to be high paid because cp says hes high paid, fekas is high impact prop when he gets the ball there are 3 or 4 tacklers on him straight away, its the same as sf they are targeted by the opposition running into 4 players is like running into a brick wall have we moved on more with the blame game weve gone through most of the players, cp wigan you can only know how much feka is on £ by rumour

cpwigan wrote:It was his best season in as long as I can remember Cherry especially after the Semi-final and why I made the thread.

I am not a fan of the interchange but it allows teams to use impact players. Even back in the day team tried to do so pre interchange. People remember Skerett. I can remember him playing for Bradford and when they had a monster pack Kel, David Hobbs, Jon Hamer did 80 minutes or as near graft but they often brought on Brandon Hill and he scored / set up tries. Sure defence was not his forte and he was far less athletic than Feka but he created mayhem.

One of my favouritwe Wigan players is Hock. Why did I like Hock? He was different, he could create sometyhing out of nothing. He was certainly not the best defender but that did not matter. We had players like Hansen, Lockers that would tackle forever.

Often it is about balance as a team. Ian Potter did the tackling, Andy Goodway did the running.

Without Hock this present team needs an X factor. feka provided that on Friday. He set Carmont, Sam T, Phelps and others free. If a player can get 3 or 4 defenders to tackle him and still slip a ball then there has to be room and opportunities out wide.

The big questions are why did Wigan 'try to reinvent the wheel' re conditioning. Big polynesians are genetically able to display great strength, great speed for weight for very short timespans. The longer they have to do something the more ineffective they become. They have poor endurance but great explosive power/speed. It struck me we were making Feka worse not better by ill judged conditioning.

Tactically, it cannot be right to bring him on according to the clock. His introduction/removal should be completely random as to what is happening within the game.

You might use 4 or 5 of your interchanges just with Feka. If we started the match very well and got a repeat set on the opposition line then you would bring Feka on after 5 minutes if need be. If after 10 minutes, the opposition had the ball and territory you bring him off. When Feka is on the pitch you should be looking to score points not defend. If we spent the first half under the cosh in our own 20 then you would not bring Feka on.

When we are defending then surely a small agile forward like Flannagan or Lockers should be alongside Feka.

Without Gaz Hock we need Feka to be Feka. We have lots of players who can do other things but we have few if any that can do what Feka can bring to the table. He is overpaid IMO. As is Fielden. That is the fault of Wigan RLFC not the 2 players.

I couldnt agree more with what you say, infact you are spot on regards the interchange and going back to the semi it was just stupid to throw Feka on when we had just started defending. I have got to say it was the desisions taken by Noble during that game that convinced me it is time to part company with Noble before he does any more damage to our club