give it another go. lockers will sharpen up im sure. not so sure about farrell at 13 but defo not hock there. you think faz stops our moves dead? how about every move being a crazy offload?

I thought sometimes last night Lockers just thought he had to be seen to take on the line because he was playing at 6 and a couple of moves broke down because of it. That said he's going to take a few games to get used to the position and he'll only improve.

I'd leave things as they are tbh. I actually thought Faz went pretty well including setting up the first try of the night and he'll not let us down at 13. I'm looking forward to seeing him get more minutes.

Faz won't be up to speed with linking with the other pivots at 13 straight away as he will practice running lines as a back row in training.

He did show and excellent delayed pass to set up a try form Charnley; something I can't remember seeing much of from Faz before so hopefully he's been working on his distribution and he might look a little more useful at 13.

Having said that if Tuson is fit I can see him playing at loose. Not that he's impressed me at 13 or anywhere else this season bar a few good moments, particularly against Bradford away.

A few years ago I gave Lockers a lot of stick. Since then I have been impressed with the way that he has improved. The silly penalties that were all too often conceded, often at the worst possible time, have been massively cut down. He has matured both as a player and a person, and, in my opinion he has gone from being an average player to a very good one. However, he is simply not a half back.

Such is his character (which has never been in doubt), that he will put his hand up and play wherever he is asked to. Sadly this will come at the cost of his own personal performances and necessarily that of the Wigan team.

A much better idea would be to blood one of the youngsters, a natural half back. If this fails, or is in danger of failing, then move Sam and cover accordingly. In my opinion playing Lockers at halfback is neither fair on him, or the best solution to our current issue.

I don't know how the CC is spent, the effects of Fielden and Roberts still must play a significant part one would think, however, to have no "natural" cover at halfback seems a bit odd.

or we could start with Lockers at 13, Logan at 9 and MM at 6

Or not

or we could start with Lockers at 13, Logan at 6 and MM at 9

It depends how you look at it. As a long term proposition, maybe not. As a stop gap solution it will work perfectly fine and is, in Wane's opinion, the best option we have available to us. For what it's worth I thought he had a decent game for his first outing and will no doubt get better with a run of games there. Anyone expecting fireworks is simply being unreasonable. Look at Finch when he first came into the side...absolutely shocking. Half is not a position you get the luxury of easing yourself into! Lockers was way better than Finchy and did quite a few good things. Decent performnce for mine.

I think Micky Mac will be getting some game time at 13 for the next few weeks. I'm nt saying he'll start at 13, but like on Monday night, I think he'll stay on and play there when Logan comes on.
It's a good idea as we then have a playmaker at 13 like we would with Lockers at loose forward.

Widnes, Bradford, Wakefield, perfect opportunity to blood one of the young halves, instead we're weak in the halves and we've weakened the pack, probably too late to change it now but the semi final is looking a lot tougher all of a sudden.

Correct.

Tonight made me worried about the decision to put him there.

We basically lose him as a player now. Completely nullifies him.

If they don't bring Mellor back after back to back shockers then Wane is mad.

Is Powell not fit?

Keep reading for weeks he's close?

Chances are it would be asking too much of Williams or Hampshire to play behind a weakened pack and given the limited experience they've had in the under 20's they could find the step up far too much too soon.

Mellor could have been recalled but from what I've heard he's signing for Widnes next year so I wouldn't blame Wane for wanting to test the young forwards out a little more.

You're assuming he gets 'sending off sufficient' for his swing tonight. Every chance we'll be without him for Wakefield as a minimum.

The probable McIlorum suspension could see Lockers back in the pack to give us the tackling machine we need back there, with the possibility of giving Hampshire/Williams a run out.

Bring Sam back in at 6/7 joining Finch and leave Murphy at 1. We're missing an extra pivot in the line to link upto the outside backs.

Of course there is. It is blindingly obvious what to do about it.

This game proved Lockers can't play 6. No disrespect to Bradford but they are not a top side and he didn't cause them any problems. "It didn't really work.." is an understatement. Lockers doesn't have the pace any more to be a stand in 6 and that stood out like a sore thumb tonight.

Got it in one. I don't think George got a pass all night. Everything wrnt the other way or down the middle and as I said in my previous post Lockers doesn't have the pace any more to play 6. There were gaps there tonight on occasion that Sam would have easily exploited with his pace off the mark. Lockers tried and his brain was clearly telling to go for it but his legs don't get into gear quick enough any more from a standing start.

He's the best 13 in the league but he is that bit older so 6 is now beyond him.

Murphy has certainly done enough to suggest that he can be relied upon. I imagine Wane will give more thought to playing George Williams in the next game too.

The biggest problem with O'Loughlin at 6 seems to be in the forwards though. Farrell is a good 13 but plays a completely different way to Lockers and it's become clear that trying to get the team to go to 2 pivots from 3 is asking too much.

Rhodri Lloyd is also not good enough yet to start at Super League level, Hughes is hit and miss as he doesn't have much experience while Tuson generally offers nothing to trouble the opposition either.

Hock, Farrell and O'Loughlin provide the strongest back row and with a few props going down injured the pack needs to be a strong as possible which it hasn't been recently.

tuson hasnt played in 3 weeks, so maybe hes the answer?

To what? We need a six not another forward.

It does seem so simple. I understand people's point that Sam is a great full back and they don't want to move him from there but Lockers is a great loose forward and we are weaker when he isn't playing there.

So the question should be who would make the best stand-off and can we find an adequate replacement for their position and to me the answer is clearly Sam. Replace him at full back by either bringing Russell back off loan or leave Murphy there who I thought went alright tonight. At the end of the day the full back is playing off the gaps that the half backs create so Sam wouldn't flourish anyway as the gaps aren't being created.

I really don't think Mellor and the other junior players are ready to play such a pivotal role at this level so that's not an option for me.

I think that H, Hock and Lockers provide our stongest back row. Faz is a great interchange player and would always be in my 17.