It was his fitness that let him down last year, you can't deny that.

He has outplayed every hooker he has played against this year though.

Amos
Pat
Carmont
Gleeson
Goulding
Sam
Tommy
Fielden
McIlorum
Coley
Joel
Bailey
Lockers

Presscot
O'Carrol
Mossop
Feka/Deacon

Hoping that Coley and Sam are both fit enough, but its a shame to be missing Riddell!

I'd like to see Feka come back in but, i think Deacon will be required to cover for Leuluai/McIlorum.

looking for an omen and we actually beat warrington without phelps and riddell so maybe we could do the double and beat saints without the pair aswell. For me we need to keep tommy and sam at 6 and 7, against warrington we looked more threatening when we had deacs at 9 so thats the way i would go, id go with.

1. Roberts
2. Goulding
3. Gleeson
4. Carmont
5. Richards
6. Sam Tomkins
7. Leuluai
8. Fielden
9. Deacon
10. Coley
11. Bailey
12. Joel Tomkins
13. O'Loughlin

14. McIllorum
15. O'Carroll
16. Prescott
17. Mossop

A deal leg can take a few weeks to heal. hope we get phelps back soon. I think feka might get a run out this week. Its going to be won and lost in the forward battle this one. Hope feka comes back to make his mark

And the reason you're not getting too far is because you seem to think he is better than he is (awful grammar but you get the point). Best at Wigan certainly but that doesn't take much. Overall I'm happy with him now but he's certainly not exceptional. His biggest asset up to now has been staying fit (unlike Buderus, who is plainly in a different league in terms of ability but has been dogged by injuries). Let's hope he's back soon before Micky Mac proves he is in fact dispensible!



EDIT: By staying fit, I mean his availability week in, week out.

Shall we get a banner made up saying

WEVE GOT INJURIES, PLEASE HAVE SYMPATHY!

HOPE YOU MENTION ARE INJURIES EVERY MINUTE EDDIE!

Do you think we'll miss him on Friday?

there's no doubting that this will be a fantastic, bruising and intense game. i'll be sky + it as i'll be at the HJ. IMO the battle will be won in the halves, with eastmond and tomkins, if eastmond steps up like he did against us then saints will win and if tomkins does then wigan will win. i don't care who wins i just hope they knock seven bells out of each other and i'm looking forward to seeing graham vs fielden.

Tomkins will not be 100% which is a huge worry

Yes. I think his omission could well be the difference between winning and losing. FWIW I actually chose him for sponsors' MOM last season. I think it was against Salford. I remember someone posting on here that whoever chose him needed his head examined lol.
However, I recall a post of yours comparing him favourably to just about every hooker in the comp whereas IMO there are plenty of his standard or better. As I said earlier, though, that's not to say I'm unhappy with him atm. Is he doing a good job? Yes. Could he be replaced easily by other (not all) hookers in this comp? Again, yes.

it is. oustanding player with a huge future. i'd be worried aswell going into this game (if i were a wigan fan) imo Leuluai doesn't have the same creativity and drive as Sam.

Why would there be? He is at Castleford for the season.

-------------

On the subject of Deacon/McIllorum, Deacon has to be in there as Micky Mc is only just back from injury and to go with no back up in a game such as the one on Friday is a huge risk.

I'd rather play an extra Forward (Farrell/Feka) and move O'loughlin to 6 or 9 as an interchange rather than play Deacon who's been missing for 3/4 weeks and before that was missing tackles for fun and looked way off the pace IMO.

phelps injury isnt serious, they decided not to risk him on fri.

coley is the main worry. there gonna make a decison about him thursday night.

Kevin Sinfield has been out injured since the World Club Challenge with a dead leg if I'm not mistaken.

We need Coley to be fit and Fielden to be performing to get anything out of this game. Feka can do a job for us in defence now but he has been pretty tripe going forward this season and has the longevity of potassium in water so it might be wise to leave him out.

Having no Riddell is a massive loss as we lose a lot of direction and organisation without him and Deacon isn't up to scratch.

I'm going to have to predict a loss unfortunately

I wouldn't play Feka untill he can do 60 mins in the reserves

I'd be tempted to give Feca a go, on the basis that he'll be determined to have a monster game in order to get his place back. In contrast, I wouldn't play Deacs because he's not even had a run out in the reserves since Bradford, where he was less than impressive.

If McIlorum is close to fully fit, there's no reason he can't play most of the game, giving us the option of 4 forwards on the bench, with Lockers dropping back into the halves if/when necessary.

Whether we want too or not we may not have a choice. As someone else has said, Coley is touch and go for Friday.

We should probably spell check any banner before putting it up.

Feka if played could have a cracker on friday! He has a point to prove!

You can't sat stuff like that about Feka he's rubbish don't you know!

So was Amos Roberts

Riddell missing is a huge loss for us. McIlorum isn't capable of directing us around the park yet.

Going to be a lot of pressure on Tommy Leuluai to do that, whether that be from 7 or 9.

As for the squad, I think Deacon will have to play; we're going to need some options in the halves given slight injury/fitness concerns over Sam and McIlorum.

I don't see Farrell getting a place, and if Coley is fully fit then it's unlikely Paleaaesina will get in ahead of any of our props, although, it would be nice to have an in form Feka charging at them from the bench.

well i don't think we will win but i expect feka and deacon to play and have outstanding games.if not the writing could be on the wall especially for feka.cumon lads.