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29wes28 wrote:Hock has the sheer size but we are lacking it now because of his ban,

The fact he is out now is completely irrelevant to signing Luauki for NEXT season. Hock will probably miss one game as I think one friendly can be used to reduce a ban, two at most.

IMO Luaki is a hell of a way in front of Feka, was Feka properly coached yes for 1 season and why didnt we keep him after that season because the coach thought he wernt good enough, why is Pryce on loan hmm because the coach must think hes not good enough! If the coach wants Luaki he must think he is good enough!

Luauki is 27 and has been poor for Hull. That is a fact. We should not be signing players of that age in the hope we may be able to coach them to be better players. It really is that simple.

If we are wanting to sign a 27 year old forward it should be because he is demonstrably a good player who can add something to the side. Not someone who has looked poor all season for his current club we are going to take a punt on hoping he might be able to come good.

I have never agreed with Pryce but incidentally do either of the 2 you mentioned play 2nd row

So it passed you buy that the point of mentioning those two was to show that it is not guaranteed that the coaching at Wigan will turn poor players into good ones? Do I really have to spell that out?

I wish you would read carefully before replying for the sake of it, Farrell and Tuson are small 2nd rows Hoff is leaving H is ok but has maxxed his frame IMO so he will get no bigger Hock is big and so is Joel but as it stands hes a centre so IMO we could use another big 2nd row in our ranks next year! I think Luaki fits that bill if you dont thats fine we could look for someone else but we need an addition. Or buy a quality centre and move Joel back to 2nd row????

I read your post all right and I happen to disagree with what you posted. The main point of my reply was to show you that it is not guaranteed that the coaching at Wigan will turn poor players into good ones and so that is no justification for signing a player that has looked poor.

If you want to make a case for another 2nd row being recruited feel free but that doesn't mean it should be Luauki.

Personally I'd rather us recruit a centre and move Joel back to the pack. That makes far more sense to me.

weststand-rich wrote: He's not a spring chicken and at 27 I fear he's set in his ways.

This alludes to the point I was trying to make. If we recruit 27 year old players in any position it should be because they are the finished article. Not a player who needs retraining.

For my two penneth worth in this affair I think there are a lot of valid points made. I do however find myself falling on the side of DaveO (for once )

It depends which Lauaki we get. The NRL chap could be a very shrewd signing and I guess for not too much money. The SL version is a bit of none entity. There's no doubt he's a bruiser but could be a disaster. DaveO raises the point that we should be signing players who are recognised top talent and are playing well. We are the SL and CC champions. I think we reserve the right to sign the best.

I don't think it's a good signing but will be more than happy to eat my words if we watch him swatting the opposition like flies.

It's a case of we'll see. He could be a Karl Pryce, he could be a George Carmont or Andy Coley.

In the balance of fairness I've looked up his stats on the superleague site and they surprised me slightly.

His go forward isn't as good as any our props by a couple of 00 metres, but that's difficult to compare because of the time on field.

His penalities are high at 13 and that's on the very high side for a prop. But Andy Coley also has 13 and that surprised me.

His errors and knocks ons are the same as most proprs, but his tackle busts are good though and he has double the number of our current props.

.... so on paper he doen't look too bad. But my heart still says he's sh*te. And he still looks like a 1960's Klingon.

Somebody, somewhere at the club must see something in him AND if conditioning makes him even better then that is a quick fix.

LEST we forget

Neil Cowie came from Rochdale Hornets, Terry O'C from Salford, Coles from Salford and Barrie Mac from Oldham.

So players can get better when they move to better clubs.

Here's hoping!!

cpwigan wrote:Somebody, somewhere at the club must see something in him AND if conditioning makes him even better then that is a quick fix.

LEST we forget

Neil Cowie came from Rochdale Hornets, Terry O'C from Salford, Coles from Salford and Barrie Mac from Oldham.

So players can get better when they move to better clubs.

Here's hoping!!

Remeber watching him at rochdale when we played them in a cup match (i think). Both me and my mate both said how good he looked then (before we signed him)something which i cant yet see in Lauaki

No shock here but Wigan have Lauaki booked in for some intensive gym work as he is nowhere near fit enough / strong enough to play as Wigan expect him to.

Hopefully by the time Waney has put him through the mill he'll be ready to put in some good performances.

It's not just his physical fitness that needs to be tip top, it'll be his mental attitude coming to a club where he'll be scrutinised more than at Hull. Fingers crossed he'll be up to it.

God wrote:IMO he will go well for us. Size is what we are lacking in the forwards. With Mossop taking over Coley and Lauaki taking O Carrol spot, our pack will be as follows.

Prescott.
Leuluai.
Lima.
Hansen.
Hock.
Lockers.

Bench...
Mossop.
Lauaki.
Tuson.
Farrell. Couple of monsters on that bench in Mossop and Lauaki IMO.

Fielden may just squeeze into the mix, perhaps

Interesting mix of comments on here; what's everyone's opinion now?

I think he is en route to doing a Lima. Big Jeff seemed a liability in his first few games but he fine tuned his NRL game to make it acceptable to SL rules.

For me, Eric is now a very handy lad to have around!