I agree, Coley has way outperformed Fielden for me this year. It's not all about the stats either Brian, it's about where on that field and at what time you make those mistakes. For example when Fielden got smashed by Harrison (I thought he'd slipped at the time, but I've watched it back and imo it's just a good shot) it was when Warrington where just starting to gain some momentum after their early nightmare spell. There can't be much that is more uplifting than one of your young lads smashing the bloke who is supposed to be leading your opponents pack!

One of Fielden's handling errors came on 34 mins, the score was 6-10 and we had just won a penalty (solomona not square) and we send Fielden up to drive it in and he drops it cold. That was a massive error, IIRC he dropped in on their 40, on the 0 tackle. After that we survive the two Myler no tries, we go from attacking their line, to defending ours.

I'm not saying the Fielden was terrible or anything along those lines, in the front row he was probably our best player, without Coley he had a lot on our shoulders and the signing of Lima couldn't have come at a better time (well, other than about 18 months ago

) I'm just saying that it's not all about the stats. Tackles/Missed Tackles are good indicators of workrate, but a knock on at the "wrong time" can lose you a game on it's own, as can a missed tackle (ask Gleeson after Leeds)

I agree, particularly when you add Ryan Hoffman to the list too.

My only worry is now retention.

Its important to keep Andy Coley at Wigan for another year and if possible Fielden too.

Lima completes our front row, no questions.

The agression he will bring to the team will allow Fielden to do what he does best: make yards and make tackles, and he won't have to 'lead' the pack or worry about 'scaring' the opposition's forwards.

As a result of this, us fans won't be looking for that from Fielden, so a lot of the pressure will be off him, and hopefully he can really perform on a consistent basis.

I'm looking forward to the back end of next year when Lima, Hock, Hoffman and Joel can start smashing the opposition around the field, and Fielden can quietly get on with being the hard working prop forward he is.

Thats crazy.

Ok if you think Fielden has been better than Coley, everyone can have an opinion but i can't see how you can say by a long way?

IMO Coley is a better player than Fielden in every aspect of their games.

Fielden has tackled better than Coley and thats about it. Coley has been better in most departments imo.

Fieldens game will not improve no matter who he plays with, hes about workrate these days as he has lost any legitimate claim to being an "enforcer". Hes never going to be a bad player the question should be, is he good enough to risk potentially losing players like Prescott, OCarroll, Davies etc I would argue no.