He's flown around the world to live in a different country, play in a different squad (which is very off form) to a different gameplan in a different competition. It may be an old line but give him time to settle and he'll get back to form before the end of the season (if our fans don't shatter his confidence before then) but even now I don't think he's doing half as bad as people make out. It doesn't help that there's a young Wigan player at his heels, that always gets the fans on an aussie's back (see Roberts v Ainscough, Smith v S.Tomkins, Bailey v J.Tomkins)

I will comment on THIS game after I've seen the replay but from the past 13 games he has played, I will say that he hasn't been the standard we expect.

I thought e plan was he [iwas[/i going to be a cult hero for us? The character we were sadly lacking in the side etc?



Because they get paid twice as much? Joking aside they don't have to twice as good, they just have to put the effort in and be an obviously good player who adds to the side otherwise why fly them half way round the world in the first place? Fletcher was a good solid pro, Scott Logan was, Pat is and so on. They aren't all duffers but when one is billed (as Riddell was by IL I think) as going to have a big impact on SL and he doesn't, it is hardly surprising if he comes in for some flak. He isn't a young player just starting out but a seasoned pro.

Dave

Interesting the divide in opinion here. Personally I thought Riddell was the better of the two hookers tonight as I have said on another thread.

i'll give him all season mate. he's got going anytime before that so he's got another 4/5 months.
still doesn't change the fact that at the moment he's underperforming. like i said, he's not the only one as is plain to see.

actually i would have thought that would have been the kick up the backside he needs

But tonight he was still better than the hooker he replaced at Wigan.

So that must be a step forward.

Sadly i think while we have Noble at the helm we will never see the best of Riddell.

So we would have been better off keeping Higham then and starting with MM?

Dave

Tommy Leuluai is the best hooker at the Wigan club.

Riddell was far better than Higham tonight.

thomas leuluai, the world cup winning hooker

I couldn't help but laugh when Wire were attacking our line and Highams pass from dummy half went 10 yards behind their attacking line!

Clarke easily outplayed him tonight.

one trick mack and fattie riddel were pretty poor and gave you nothing in attack .your defence was pretty good though but your pack was owned and fielden was turned into Morleys bitch and fattysyinya was none existent either in attack or defence .

You bin smokin the whacky baccy mate ? or have you just taught your ass to speak !

as opposed top one trick mick, scoot scoot!

One trick mick will do us fine you can keep one trick mack and Fattie !
By the way thanks for the 100k+ and Mathers

if you think higham is better than mcilorum then you're in for some fun flower. clarke outplayed him and higham will yet again be a back-up hooker.

Higham is an impact hooker, if we continue to use our hookers in the current wat we may as well have not bothered with Riddell.

after tommy's performances in the WC there were many that thought exactly that.
still maintain we made the right decision to get rid of higham and mathers.

Riddell is 10 x the hooker Higham is, but if we do not give him options there is no point recruiting him.

Disagree he's been awesome the last month or so

Riddell looked like he'd put weight on tonight plus the balls he was putting out was shocking

Mickey Higham is a much better player than McIlorum, I sometimes wonder where many of youe extract your views from. I think Riddell plays better with a classy halfback(i.e Barrett) at first reciever dictating play, was similar to Buderus at Newcastle he always gave Joey perfect ball which enabled Joey to dictate play.

IMO Riddell stank the place out and yes I have wathced the game again.

On another night with a linesman or ref with his specs on he could have been pulled up for at least 3 forward passes from dummy half, one of which dan marino would have been proud of.

In saying that McClorum also suffers from the same issue but IMO McClorum was the stand out hooker again.

And as for the missed tackle on Monaghan it wasn't great but he was hardly helped by a terrible mis read of the play by O Loughlin who had he left the dummy runner to his man would have been in a position to assist.

It's time you stopped your pointless defence of this fat waster.

It's becoming embarrassing.

You have now resorted to making up crap about McIlorum just to make the Pig look better.

He offers nothing, nothing at all. He is a bog standard RL player with no flair, no pace, no more skill than any other hooker.

Really?

And how does a man who doesn't attend games come to that conclusion?

What do you think of his performance against Hull KR last week?