Hock was the direct replacement for hoffman which has turned out great as far as i am concerned. Luaki, dudson, crosby and spencer have replaced coley and o'carroll and again that has turned out pretty well. I was a bit unsure how our new recruits and young lads would bed in to this side as there was nothing 'world class' about any of the new signings but i have got too say i am pretty happy with how all of them have performed.

These are my personal favourites - guess the poster:

"Wigan should sign Ryan McGoldrick as a fullback"

(in 2009) "Wigan should given Brian Noble another year"

(with no evidence whatsoever except the fact he'd been seen at a few reserve games) "Brian Noble is the hardest working coach in Super League"

Dare I say that Joel was possibly a better player than Hock?

As you said raw pace mixed with that Tomkins agility, power and handling means for me he has more attributes than Hock.

Both are fine players tho and for me Joel was our next 13 and skipper.

Joel was immense last season, and while we have not felt the loss as much as feared due to Goulding stepping up.

Who can forget his CC try, which won us the match and his try vs the exiles, neither of which Goulding would have scored.

I too saw him as the natural replacement for SOL, but who knows he may be back?

I certainty hope so.

How is Joel doing in yawnion? This may sound rough but I would hope not so brilliantly so that he might see the grass wasnt so greener maybe.

Of course, seeing his brother(s) lift trophys may help that cause as well.

Joel was far from being "immense" last season.

He was decent in an unfamiliar position and scored a couple of fantastic try's, but in no way he was "immense"

The thing people need to be careful of is getting carried away, this year and its signings are going better than anybody could imagine, this season we will lose Carmont, Tommy, Lima and in all likelihood Finch (and Roberts), without any question that presents a huge amount of problems for the management team and they really need to get our signings right, otherwise, we will quickly drop back into the back, we are losing 4 of the best players in SL this time.

Definitely. We don't need Joel back. Our back 3 is perfect as it is and Farrell/Hughes are good replacements.

scored on his debut and hardly played since...not even making the bench most of the time.
he must be either
1. rubbing his hands about getting paid for doing nothing
2. frustrated

my monies on 2

I thought Joel had pretty much accepted that he would spend what was left of the season playing for the second string side and playing a few games in the LV Cup. Wasn't it stated that he wanted to learn the game and his role first rather than being thrown right in like other converts have been?