Heard a whisper coming from inside the Wigan camp that Eamon may be signing for Huddersfield and Darrell Griffin coming to Wigan!!

That rumour has been hanging about on the "other" board for a while now.

Hope there is nothing in it myself as until his injury O'Carroll was going great for us was often the best out of Fielden, Coley and himself (before Coley found his current form).

Dave

Griffin is a reasonable forward, but i dotn see how Wigan would gain anything by getting rid of O'Carroll.

might as well. they've got half of Wigan there already. plus they want mossop

As much as i dislike saying it, i do not think we can continue to satisfy 2 junior Props in our squad with the gametime they require. We have to make a choice of who we see as the better prospect between him and Prescott, especially with Davis sounding like he is hot on there heals as well.

I personally think it would be a good move by the club, although a tough decision to make, bringing in another big unit grafting Prop would put us in a much stronger porition than we currently are upfront. Its these tough decisions that will see us sink or swim as a club and team over the next few years, when you consider the secondrow situation and outside back situation at the club.

no deal for me

No deal, sell Fielden instead?

Check the stats, and you will realise how stupid that comment is.

No kench.

Prescott is far too injury prone at this moment in time to even begin to consider this. O'Carroll up to the point where he got injured was our best prop. It would be a real bad move from the club if we got rid. A loan deal yes but a permenant move would be stupid.

It's another of those situations that would be a 'no winner' for the club. Despite the sensible argument you post above, there would be the usual angry response from many posters (some of whom will be the same ones who've been calling for a new prop for some time, apparently oblvious to the reality that it might sound the transfer bell for one of our youngsters).

That said, I'd hope we'd release Coley before O'Carroll. He's the form prop at present, but he's much older and his contract runs out very soon.

No way was O'Carroll our best prop up to him getting injured!
He was alright but we have improved significantly upfront with Prescott in the Squad instead!

Prescott being a far bigger unit is taking a lot of steam out of the opposition when taking the ball in and physically dominates players far better than O'Carroll.

I think Prescott has been one of the contributing factors to Coley inparticular and Fielden's upturn in form, He's taking a lot of pressure of them.

O'Carroll is full of enthusiasm and is a touch quicker but will never be more than a 4th/5th choice prop at a club that wants to Challenge/Win things.

As Jonh says a tough decision needs to be made about O'Carroll/Prescott & for me Prescott wins Hands down every time. If O'Carroll is prepared to stay and play for peanuts then fair enough, if Not (And I wouldn't blame him) then he may need to go somewhere else to get more game time etc.

IMHO he wouldn't come back to Haunt us if he did leave.

Very hard to accurately compare the two as I can't find a stat for 'minutes played', plus O'Carroll's been injured for most of the games we've hit form in, both of these give Fielden an unfair advantage.

However:

O'Carroll - 7 metres per carry, 0 errors per game, 0.3 penalties per game, 22 tackles per game, 1 missed tackle per game
Fielden - 7 metres per carry, 0.5 errors per game, 0.3 penalties per game, 25 tackles per game, 2 missed tackles per game

Not much to choose between the two, having said that I'm wary of the stats on the super league site, for example they say Fielden's made 35 tackle busts this season, which simply hasn't happened.

Have we improved because of Prescott or have we improved because both Coley and Fielden have upped there game lately?

Personally I think Prescott has been ok...not outstanding by any means. He looks a bit sluggish and slow to me.

I don't think the 2 our unconnected, I think Prescott is helping them far more in this dept than O'Carroll was.

He takes 3 men to bring him down nearly every time! He also Wrestles and tires them out by staying on his feet longer.

4 or 5 occassions last week he drove the ball in and 2 tacklers met him, but 2 more were attracted as he had to stay on his feet and had to come in to wrestle him down.

As for him being "Sluggish", that I can understand as I do think he lacks a bit of Zip.

However

IMO as a team we need the attributes that Prescott brings to the game (Size,Strength and Physical Presence etc) rather than what O'Carroll brings (Speed, movement etc).

Early season we all said that we were crying out for an enforcer Prop. I belive that Prescott (Whilst not being an enforcer prop as such) is closer to that than What O'Carrol is and our defincies as a team our masked better when Prescott plays than O'Carrol.

I do like O'Carroll, but i see him much more as an impact forward. Given we have Feka this somewhat limits his options. I do think you can carry 2 impact props but if you are to do so both need to be world class, while i think O'Carroll is a good player i do not think he is good enough to carry given his stlye in a 4 man line up alongside Feka.

Were he not a local lad and clearly passionate about Wigan, i doubt there would be much concern if he were linked with a move away from the club. As i said above i think this may be the start of a few decisions that will not go down too well with fans but for the success of the club will need to be made over the next year or 2.

Correct! (Apart from he's not a local lad he's from Oldham

)

And has an impact prop he's not in the same league as Feka!

I am reading Mike Gregs book again (3rd time now!) and I like the Rip & Tear attitude he brought to the club and how he talks of the physical intimidation aspect of the game.

O'Carroll doesn't offer enough in this department for me.

If I were an opposition forward and I had to start against O'Carrol or Prescott I would much rather face O'Carroll.

If I were an opposition forward and had to handle Feka or O'Carrol coming off the bench again No Contest!

Finally at the club we have more options than spots available ans some players are going to be disappointed. Thta's how it should be and long may it continue and lets see those players fighting for their spots and the palyers in possession of a the shirt fihgting to kkep it!

If Griffin came he wouldn't be here long.
He's never anywhere very long.
Didn't he have an argument with a mirror some time ago?

Not sure why some people have this opinion of him, he has been at 2 pro clubs Trinity and Hudds, the fans may not like him at Trinity but there was on real behind the scences issue, not sure the ins and outs at Huddersfield but from what i gather there is nothing newsworthy in any of his conduct.

When Griffin was first on the scene I was pretty impressed and he's still a good SL prop forward. Swapping him for O'Carroll maybe gives a bit more bulk, but I'd stick with E O'C overall.

I've heard alot of rugby coaches/football managers talk about rumours reagrding players leaving and being replaced with others and they'll all say the same that when letting one lad go to bring in another you've got to be certain it will improve the side and i'm not sure Griffin for O'Carroll would improve us short term let alone long term.

No go for me.

Exactly how i feel about this rumour

35,000 pound kench or no kench

no kench noel

Its an interesting point for discussion.

On the face of it, its no deal for me. But, both the kids need more game time and we can't satisfy that currently. I would like to see one of them go on loan for a year, or at least the rest of this year.

Griffin would bring rough & tumble, but surely there would be someone of better quality available by the year's end.

O'Carroll to go out on a years loan for me next season if a real high quality prop is available.........that mans Not Griffin.

Then we can see how he developes somewhere else whilst watching Prescott develope here and then when Fielden is off contract the year after maybe there will be a place in the 17 for the both of them.