That's harsh but probably true, although that type of prop are hardly in common supply. Maybe Huby from Cas could do a Coley?

stu is on a big wage and wont want to drop down to acadamy wages but thats all he's going to be offerd. its taken years for him to get fit and healthy but cant manage a couple of reserve games without picking up an injury! i cant see any way forward for him at wigan.

Can't say I agree with the tone of your post, you seem to be angry at him for being able to secure a good contract. I'm not sure how he's 'living off past glories' as opposed to being a player who has seemingly come to the end of his rugby career in an unfortunate way.

I agree that he's not worth a new contract though. He's barely played in two years so he's not been able to do anything to suggest that he's retained. If we do need a good experienced prop forward then we might as well sign one who doesn't carry quite so much risk.

Paul Wood from Wire would do the trick.

Thank god some common sense.

Zero mins game time in 18 months = no reason to give him a new contract.

Unless he happens to be fully fit now. He's a proven winner even at 33 years of age and we would be crazy not to offer him at least a further 12 months, provided he gets over his injuries. He's truly got something to prove and I reckon he'll rip it up if he does make it back.

IF he's over the worst of his injuries and IF he is willing to take a pay cut I'd keep him. If either of these are a problem then bye bye Stu.

Usually with this type of player the only real reaso anyone can come up with for keeping him is "so they don't make us regret it and beat us" well he isn't going to get a top team coming in for him so there's no chance of that. It's just bad luck that he's regaining fitness at the wrong time of the season.
He probably can do a job but we probably aren't going to see him in first team again unless wane takes a chance in the play off week where we will get a second go if we lose.

To drop a player who deserves to be in the play offs for a past it player who is too stubborn to retire would really take the wee, he doesn't deserve a run out in the first team until he has proved himself in at least 4 or 5 games given the amount of time he has been out, not going to happen, thanks Stu for helping us in our hour of need but your overall time at Wigan does not warrant another contract whether you are fit or not

Difficult to see him getting a new deal.
Although we need to bring experience in for next season a prop aged around 27/28 would more like Wane's style. Lauaki has proved to be a good solid player and with Lima leaving another South Sea Islander of the same age would fit in well. There may yet be a prop or three available at Bradford before too long.
Shame for Fielden with all the injuries but it could well be that this is his last season at Wigan.

I wouldnt be suprised to see us sign Kopczak from Bradford. I think with losing both stu and jeff we need some experience in the front row.

Give him a picture of a Spitfire and let him go.

Accordingy to wane will play in the 20's next week.

Must be desprate for the 20's if Wane is playing

Far too many ifs for me I’m afraid. He’s been a massive drain on the salary cap for almost two seasons. I think he’ll go.

I wouldn't be surprised if he retires now tbh. He's made a lot of money by now and I bet he'd make a great prop coach so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he just does that.

Thing is though if I'm not mistaken they're not recurrent injuries are they? Wasn't he just unlucky he got injured in another way as soon as he was fit again?

If we can get him on a deal like we had deacon I'd go for it he's a lot of player to have on his day and we don't really have any properly experienced props especially with Lima leaving.

I'm now not so sure. According to Wane, he's "3 weeks off". He's been 3 weeks off for months now.

he has tweeted about dusting his boots off so assume he is playing on Thursday.

That will take some doing. There must be a heap of dust on his boots after all this time.

I think Quentin Crisp had some theory about dust.

He is.

He may play next monday if wane is really ed with players from last week. One or two dropped maybe?

would be a massive mistake

If our training is as "full on " as wane keeps saying maybe that is a greater intensity than playing 20's football

look how many games it took Hock to get match fitness and Gaz is 4 year younger than Fielden, imo Stu is a lost cause for Wigan

Doubt Fielden will play first team again but more performances like Saturdays from our front rowers may alter that.

It's nice to have the shadow of Fielden, Dudson and Flower lurking in the background. I'd give the four who played on Saturday another chance but we need way more then Lima and inparticular Mossop offered. I'll give Prescott the benefit of the doubt as it was his first game back after injury and I thought Lauaki did ok but no more then that.

Lima needs to start concentrating more because errors have crept in to his game and it's letting him down and Mossop looks totally uninterested at the minute. He's been ok in the nothing games barely breaking sweat and making 100+ metres but in the big games he seems incapable of raising his energy or aggression levels and looks lethargic.

I think you're being a bit unfair in picking on the props, they were just given too much work to do in defence by all our mistakes (and they were no more guilty of handling errors than the rest of the side).