I can't believe we let Fielden go and then potentially make a Knee jerk reaction and sign Paul Wood, who in my opinion isn't as good as Fielden and not that much younger than him! Bearing in mind Fielden has had virtually two years rest and recovery time. Doesn't seem to make much business sense to me, unless Fielden wasn't prepared to accept what would ahave been a revised contract.

Yeah, I got that feeling as well and personally I would like to sign him up long term. He frustrates at times because he doesn't show his best form often enough but when you really need him, in the biggest games, he never lets you down. The challenge for him now is to find consistency but it would be frustrating if that was elsewhere after Wigan had spent years developing him.

But he does let us down, in big games more often than not. He gets dominated with the ball and can’t keep hold of it quite often in contact (Warrington home game first hit up). He was dropped by Peet because of his lack of impact and then probably found a place in the squad by default after what unfortunately happened to Cooper and the lack of progress from Hill. He might do some work in defence and that’s more where the argument is to keep him as a senior prop but he’s blocking the pathway for either Hill or a space in the squad to sign someone else in the future.

We're probably on different definitions of 'big games' here. I'm talking about Cup semis/finals, play off games, Grand Finals and the World Club challenge. Warrington at home, in the middle of a lull for the whole squad isn't the type of game I'm referring to.

I'm the first person to get frustrated with him in the weekly rounds btw. He needs to find consistency and push himself week to week and not just wait for the type of big games I'm referring to. He's just turned 25, so now is the time for him to do that. I think he can do it and would rather that be at Wigan than elsewhere. If that's possible under the cap I don't know. In terms of him blocking Harvie Hill, I'm not sure it's just him. Dupree didn't crack any pots also (even in big games) and if Hill is good enough, he'll get past those two and claim a place.

At the Grand Final he ran a fantastic line that holds Parcell up and helps create the gap that Bevan goes through for his try, I guarantee Peet will be looking at those little details, beyond the big carries and tackles. Commitment to running good lines whether your going to get the ball or not, I don't remember much of it when we were running with the likes of Clubb and Flower.

I'm glad Byrne is staying. He's got the potential to be a great forward as we all saw towards the back end of 2023 before his unfortunate injury. He's shown glimpses of it this year but he's struggled to hit those heights again. He seems to struggle with his consistency as one week he's one of the stand-out forwards, and then he becomes a liability the next week. If you compare this to Havard who is consistently good every week, it's hard to justify putting Byrne out there. The new tackle rules this year and the upcoming "below the shoulder" rules for 2025 have diminished one of the best aspects of his game: his aggressive tackling. He enters the tackle very upright, putting him at risk of conceding a penalty with the new rules.