On our (the Hull FC) board on a post about Sam Moa, FC Baldy posted this.....

"Fecka isnt what he is cracked up to be and Wigan fans arent fussed on him due to his game time."

Is this true? I find it hard to believe because he always looks awesome to me! I'd be happy if Moa became as effective anyway!

Opinions on Feka differ on here dependant on what people believe we should see from a prop forward.

My opinion is-

He's about a stone and a half too heavy but is still a fine player. His explosive runs bring so much to the team and take so much out of the opposition but if he lost that weight he could still do the same things only for a longer period of time.

Feka at present- Good player

Feka minus a stone and a half- Great player

As for Sam Moa i've not seen anything from him to suggest he could get near Feka's level of ability tbh. He doesn't seem to have that explosiveness from the mark that Feka has.

He does seem to have the belly though.

To be fair, I've not seen another prop that does in SL!

feka s a crowd favourite an always will be

In my opinion, if Feka lost some of his weight it may make his long explosive runs less effective, as he wont be able to bulldoze over players like he has against Leeds repeatedly (who remembers him flattening Millard in his first season?) and the time he went half the pitch against Hull, including a spectacular dummy against the full back.

There is a fine balance between losing weight to increase fitness & playing time, and losing effectiveness along with it. If we aren't careful it could go badly for everyone involved.

He is perfect as he is, get him to lose weight and gain fitness and he will lose his abbility to steamroller over the defence, he is an impact prop plain and simple, so what if he only mangages 35-40 minutes a game, it is our other props that should be getting scrutinised as Feka does what he is paid to do

On these 2 points mate.

Feka was at very least a stone(and more like over 2 stones) lighter in his first season with us then he is now and like you say could still run over the top of people.

He'd lose nothing on the explosive power front if he lost a stone imo.

Despite the weight could he play longer if Noble let him?

I also don't think we use him that wisely. How often is he the dummy runner when we are 10m or less from the line? It might be an idea on occasion just to give him the ball and let him have a go. If he didn't make it, it would at least suck in an extra player to stop him. This seems to happen very rarely to me.

Dave

I've said for ages that i can't believe we don't use him close to the line like the Bulls used to do with Anderson(via Jimmy Lowes).

A criminal waste.

Not true in my eyes, Feka is a game changer when he comes on. People complain about his tackling but he caught Burrow against Leeds last week so it he really that bad? Looking at his tacking stats his missed tackles are slightly worse than Hargreaves @ Saints, as a made v missed rate Paul Wellens is defensively worse... As a prop his other attributes make up for the perceved weakness in defense and while he doesn't play more than 35 mins on the whole he's not that far behind other props.

The thing is though, when he did lose that extra stone and a half he's carrying round last year (around the time of him giving that bus driver a whack) he became far [imore[/i effective. Because he was just as powerful a runner, but was fitter.

So, alas, your opinion is wrong.

Don't we normally pla with 4 props? So this would mean that on average the other props are going to be doing maybe as many as 42 mins/game when rotated equally with Feka doing 35?

I don't understand why his game time is pulled into this time and time again when other props are quite often equally rested.

Spot on.

This bulls*t that he's lose power if he lost weight is exactly that. All that would happen is his fitness would improve and he'd be able to play more minutes.

He was just as powerfull in his first season at Wigan but was at least 2 stones lighter.

Anybody remember how slim he was in his first game at Catalans when he burst away to score under the posts from 40metres out?

Thats the shape he should be in now.

But Hargreaves has made over 100 tackles more lol.

I know which of the two props I'd rather have.

it's about getting the balance right really. To me, Feka already does more game time than he used to. Yep, he could do with losing some weight, but I wouldn't want him to lose too much.

His runs, when he comes on, are awesome - and whatever anyone says, the opposition fear him. I swear, you could see the consternation in the Leeds ranks whenever he got the ball.

IMO Feka has the ability to play more minutes. It's just that Noble sticks with his weird timed substitutions - He brings Feka off 5 mins before half time.

I've told them many, many times.

Wigan had three young props, Prescott, O'Carroll and Hargreaves.

We let the worst of the three go.

No, because he becomes a defensive liability, he isnt able to react and is exposed as a gap in our defence.

For the balance of our squad I'd rather have Hargreaves (even though I only rate him as average really), we already have an impact prop. He's the kind of average workhorse player than every squad needs.

Trouble is we've already got at least two of those. Get another gamebreaker, and we'll be well balanced.

Come back when either of them have scored a hat trick

Oh, I fully understand why you want him in your squad. I just find the use of the numbers used in that post to defend his defensive liabilities amusing.

Are you seriously telling me that you would rather have Hargreaves before Prescott or O'Carroll( when he is fit obviously)

I've not seen that much difference so far.

None of them will be as good as the likes of Burgess or Graham, all will probably go on and have decent SL careers without doing much else.