Agree completely..Its currently an expensive handicap on the the whole team.

Tonight you played against only 16 men.

As did you largely, Roberts and Mossop went off injured (the roberts injury before he got taken off having a reasonable contribution to 2 of your tries) Deacon played a token last few minutes.

Whatever the reason is it must be a bloody important one if the alternative is picking such an inexperienced and lightweight pack against one the size of Wires. He is clearly not carrying an injury as he gets to be 18th man every week. He is regularly in the 19 but never plays these days.

It's pure speculation but I think it is simply down to Madge's meritocracy. Mossop (for example) trains better all week, does what Madge wants all week. Feka doesn't because he physically can't (which to Madge is a black mark in itself) so Mossop is the automatic choice [iignoring the opposition[/i. If I am right I think Madge is cutting his nose off to spite his face because he must clearly see the need for more size and experience in the pack against a team like Wire and so despite not being perfect IMO he should pick Feka to do a job but simply will not consider it. I get the impression Madge wouldn't have picked Brett Kenny because he wandered around with his hands in his pockets and sometimes you just have to be a bit more flexible to pick the right side IMO.

Dave

The biggest error for me last night was the failure to bring Roberts off as soon as he was injured. The error lead to two Warrington tires, which I believe could and should have been avoided. As a side note, Roberts is obviously so much a confidence player that he becomes a pretty majoy weakness when he's not in great form; let's hope when he fully recovers from his injury he starts playing again as we get into the play offs.

I'd also have had Paleaaesina on the bench last night, might as well use him while we have him, and given the conditions, the game was always going to be won by the forwards last night.

Maybe MM saw the semi final from last year where Feka got totally exposed by Monaghan that he thought he couldn't risk it? I am not saying I agreee that Feka should or shouldn't of played but surely Maguire is aware more than ever at our need for some big props for next year.

Maybe we should be giving IL some stick for refussing to get us a prop last year even though everyone knew that was the area we were most in needs of improving and instead he plucked for Deacon.

i'm surprised (and glad) he wasn't picked last night, i know we go on about how we worked him out of the game with monas at the semi last year, but at the H&J this season, we couldn't stop him.

I hope not!

Only problem i have with the Feka situation is when Coley got his ban MM said this was Feka's chance to impress. And how can he impress if he does not play him i think we needed him last night but then again i am not the coach. We nearly lost Fielden and we lost Mossop i just feel having Feka as a backup prop would have helped last night.

If feka had played we'd have lost by a lot more than one try.

I must admit I was hugely suprised that Feka wasnt on the bench and in the end it made a difference. Allthough Wigans youngsters have been outstanding for large parts of the season you really do need an experienced Interchange bench for big matches like last night. Maguire got that one wrong imo but apart from that he has been outstanding for Wigan this year. A top class coach.

I dont think Feka would have scored the try Tuson did and I think Tuson would have missed out for Feka

It's poor management were still 2 points in front at the top of super league and he's using the same personel as last season what did nt have any heart or fight in them ,I think people want have a reallity check and look at the prediction thread at the beginning of the season were they all thought we d finish in the table , I'm a lot happier going to games this season than the last 2 or 3 season were we had nothing to us don't forget this is the same team as Last year ,

i really dont get why people are having a pop at madge for not picking feka.. whenever he's been picked he simply hasnt performed, its no surprise he's only lasted 10mins or so during these games.

i've also watched him in the reserves and he's been poor for them aswel, he only has himself to blame for not being picked

Was it poor management when

Wigan dropped the ball several times with no pressure
couldn't complete sets of 6 in the first 20 when they were dominant
when Tomkins kicked in the 2nd half instead of running or passing
when we lost 3 or 4 players to injury or knocks (and they played on but were struggling)
when the team seemed to decide to play a forward game up the middle and rarely pass out wide (HBs where???)
couldn't defend warrington kicks for toffee
let briers run the game 2nd half with no pressure on him
No.

Feka would have made no difference (Tuson was close to MOM for me anyway) on the form he has shown this season - two drives then thats it.

If there is a quibble it is why Deacon wasn't brought on sooner (at least he can field kick).

Totally agree with some people on here we play leeds in challange cup and use 16 men against a far bigger pack (tuson never played from the bench) feka travelled as 18th man, then again tonight we put deacon on the bench who does 8 mins surley we could have used feka on the bench to bulster the pack again against a far bigger pack. i understand feka is not what he used to be but surley 15 mins of feka taking the ball in killing energy from a side is better than deacon or tuson sat there doing nothing

We lost and we didn't pick him so it could hardley be any worse could it? Picking pack he did didn't work and it's not rocket science to compare the two on paper and say Wire's was going to win the forward battle. I said before the game Wire would be favourites with Coley out and I was proved right and I am not claiming some great RL insight in saying that, I think it was obvious.

And I don't agree Feka is the completely useless player he is made out to be. As has been pointed out by someone else in this thread he was not useless v Wire at the HJ and it seems everyone points to the semi final as if he is only player we have in the squad who has had a bad game playing Warrington. He isn't.

It is not sacrilidge to question the way Madge has handled the Feka situation in the same way it wasn't sacrilidge to complain Nobby got certain things wrong despite him saving us from relegation. It does my head in that it seems it's a black or white situation with our coaches. They are either perfect or they are rubbish and that is just not the case. They get things wrong sometimes. Madge has been brilliant all season but it's my opinion when the injuries (or suspensions) have occured his bench choices have not been the best. With Feka I think Madge and Wane seem to have given up on him and the result is we have effectivley lost a senior prop form our squad and so when one of the other two senior props are out we put out a very inexperienced pack. As happened last night if the one senior prop we have goes off then it's men against boys. While it's good enough to put 60 on a 12 man Salford will not win against the top sides with a pack like last nights on the pitch and the annoying thing is we have an SL standard prop the coach won't pick.

Dave

As soon as I saw the four subs on the bench last night it looked as if we had 3 backs and one forward there. I could see problems immediately. If we get the season ending big games, we are going to have to sort out the front row or there won't be any trophies !

Sometimes matches turn into a forward battle, that's the nature of the game, and it played right into Wires hands.

Bottom line is, this this MM's first season as a head coach. He will make mistakes. But he knows better than us, so there must be a reason. Wane is also there, he might have been pressuring MM to play Feka, he may not. But we never expected to be in this position in January, this is meant to be a transistional season, with a lot of out of contract players at the end of it, and the chance for MM to bring in his players.

Most people would have plumped for 3rd and 4th in January, with the odd generous 2nd. I'm sure nobody went for 1st, which IS STILL IN OUR HANDS.

4 out of 5 victories will almost certainly give us our first silverware in eight years and out 1st League in 10 long, long years.

I still think that Maguire and Wane are with Feka each and everyday he trains, for whatever reason they are not selecting him when seeing how he performs in this. It's not simply a case of giving a player a game and seeing how he goes.

Feca had a decent game in the reserves today - played the full 80, lots of carries and did nowt wrong in defence that I noticed.

Sorry but in my opinion we lost because of the actions of the players on the field rather than the choices of the coaching staff; perhaps the weather made a difference, the deluge before kick off changed the nature of the pitch and probably favoured the bigger pack rather than a running game which perhaps Wigan were looking for especially given the subs Wigan had. I agree that the coaching staff haven't got everything right - none ever do (I am sure even someone like Bennett has made mistakes) but there was enough talent on the pitch to win the game - at 16 all the game was there to be won.

Personally I base my opinion on Feka on the games he has played this season - and I am not convinced that in that game he would have made that much difference . Coley yes we did miss.

Maybe we would have been better with another prop on the bench - but given that Fielden took a very heavy knock early on (on tv the implication was he was knocked out or close to being) which I think effected him for the rest of the game - and Mossop got injured as well it limited the choices at the time.

Still water under the bridge now - I am sure the coaching staff will take on board what happened and the players too hopefully and learn from thier mistakes.

People seem to forget Maguire is using 'used tools' ie. an old regime's players (with the exception of Deacon). I think he has done terrificly well in taking us to where we are now. I'll be honest, I hope for silverware this season more than expect it. League leaders shield we may win but as for SL, I think with the squad we have and shortage of props is our achilles heel ATM, so for that reason I don't think we will win SL.

But even if/when we don't, I'll still be pleased with this season.

Agree with you.

If I assume that MM+SW had a reason not to select Feka that we as fans are not party to, Coley, O'Carroll and McIlorum unavailable, and Davies probably still probably needing a few more SL games before being thrown into a game like last night, then I think our bench selection actually made sense (i.e. we played what we could).

We had a very mobile pack out there, and I think we were looking to play to that strength. We then had the Fielden hit (having to bring on Mossop before plan, and greatly affecting the rest of Stuarts game) and then Roberts picking up his injury (2 tries follow) and we're forced to take him off and try and reshuffle on the fly. In retrospect maybe we could have reshuffled differently, maybe it would have made no difference, we'll never know now.

well lets not forget this is MM's first season as a head coach and also that its a new team to him, i mean compared to him taking over a game or two at the storm where he has been for some time

personally i think hes doing a cracking job, i mean, nobody is perfect