We will have to disagree,i would still fancy my chances of a one-on-one with Mcgoldrick five yards from the tryline,and i haven't played the game in years

Mind you it wouldn't surprise me if T.M plays Mathers at centre

Mathers is a better player than McGoldrick - end of. He also won't cost us the amount of penalties McGoldrick does by his constant niggling and inability to know when to keep his mouth shut.

Thats your opinion and your entitled to it, my opinion is that mathers is going to be a signing on par with korkidas and rudder. The fact he has been surplus to requirments at his last 3 club tells its own story.

Send him over the common we'll take anybody at the moment

Mathers wasn't surplus to requirements, TS wanted him to stay but Richie didn't want to stay.

There are no stats for players holding up over the line, Richie has saved so many tries this season. Most wire fans given the choice would rather he had stayed.

he will be the best fullback cas have had since steadman imo. ( also rated jason flowers in defence)

Did you not replace him with a much better fulback?

I'm not suprised he didnt want to stay if he would have to wait for hodgson to get injured before he got a game.

Hodgson is a better attacking fullback, that suits Wires game, Mathers is a better defensive fullback and marshalls the defensive line a lot better than Hodgson.

If you think he's naff you have been spending too much time with Wiganers. Both us and Leeds saw the good Richie Mathers, yeah he had a couple of brainfarts but so does every player and he's definitely saved us a lot more points than he's conceded. You'll see next season, you'll eat your words when he sures up your defence.

Hodgson is a much better defensive fullback, he one of the main reasons that hudds have had one of, if not the best defence for the last two years. The differance between hodgsons defence the other night and mathers was huge. You didnt see hodgson knocking on with his first touch which led to hsi team conceding did you, you didnt see hodson failing to stop a stand off crash over from short range despite having other defenders in support, you didnt see hodgson going completley the wrong way for the short kick which led to another try, you didnt see hodgson throw out an aweful pass that got intercepted to cost his team the game and end his clubs season.

I can assure you i dont spend any time with wiganers, i base my opinions on what i see, mathers hasnt been the same player since he left leeds and the fact that he is costing his team games despite being under far less pressure than he will be at cas and being far better coached than he will be at cas fills me with dread.

The only plus is that in 3 years he will be gone.

If you had swapped fullbacks the other night you would still be in the play offs

Thats the way to welcome and encourage a new signing. ffs weve got him and hell go fine for us.
Reserve judgement for when the lad has a few games under his belt, then you may be saying 'told you so', but I think you will be admitting you got it wrong this time

Now I know you're having a laugh! Hodgson is a great player but not cos of his defence - its not really his fault but he's just too lightweight to be able to stop anybody running head on at him.

In your comparison between the performances of Hodgson & Mathers the other night I note you didn't mention the fact that Mathers wasn't picked up and thrown about like a rag doll by an oposition centre a la Atkins on Hodgson.

Hodgson is a classic Australian fullback - great at running the ball back and chiming into the attack but not considered there to do the tackling cos in the NRL the rest of the team are expected to make the tackles before it gets to the last line of defence.