Gaz hat trick

You can't just decide to go in all guns blazing and expect it to happen. If Wire get early possession then Wigan might not see much of the ball and patience will be essential. Wire are the very best at making a quick start and sticking Hock on the field straight away could play straight into their hands as they exploit his defence. He wasn't great defensively before he was banned and it won't have improved a great deal while he's been out of the game. Match fitness is still an issue and give Wire a chance to target him and they will, and they'll probably come out on top.
Against Wakefield his attacking play was good but he only made 11 tackles. He wasn't tested at all and it's tackling that will really test his match fitness.

For me, Hock is still a massive risk, especially defending in the back row and Liam Farrell is by far the safer option, especially defensively.

Playing Hock was always a risk, his threat to wire outweighs the risk for me.

He should be on the bench with hoffman to start for me

Spot on.

Hock has always played the game on the edge but his attributes he brings to the side far outweigh any flaws wire could target.

We can maximise his good points and try to lessen any risks by playing him from the bench and injecting him at certain times.

Let's go and win this game and not fall into the trap of trying not to lose it. We were guilty of that at Leeds in the cup last year IMO.

Absolutely.

This isn't going to be a game for the timid, that's for sure.

+1