Couldn't agree more.

agree. how can it hurt our squad with fielden coming back into it?

agreed

coming into the big games, I can't see anybody wanting to have Crosby/Spencer on the bench and not Fielden.

It would lift our pack to have another experienced prop on the field going into the business end of the season.

Personally I can't wait for Stu to return, him & Coley were the cornerstones of our pack for 3 years. To lose both within 12 months has allowed us to develop the likes of Mossop & Prescott but we have been founding wanting on occasion this year when up against a tough opponent.

He used to get smashed in most collisions, even rookie props were embarrassing him - every single week.

And he's unbelievably slow in defence, quite simply a weak link in a lot of games in 2010, especially on our own line where his agility (or lack of) lets him down a lot.

You can't be talking about Fielden there? A weak link in 2010? He played himself back into the England team FFS. It was by far his best season in a Wigan shirt and he'd clearly got his head right as he aluded too on Super League Super Men.

In defence.

Watch any games from that year.

rlE.g 1rl, rlE.g. 2rl. And these were actually the first two games I came upon on Youtube lol.

Richards missed the first tackle. The second one I'll agree he was slow to react but it was a cracking ball from Wilkin.

His stats from that season in defence were:

Tackles: 607 Marker:89 Missed: 18 These are better than Andy Coleys of Tackles: 523 Marker: 78 Missed: 22

Only Lockers and Joel made more tackles from marker.

For the record, he has better attacking stats than Coley as well

Carries: 358 Metres: 2543 Av Gain: 177 Errors: 18 Offloads: 23 compared too Carries: 285 Metres: 1921 Av Gain: 140 Errors: 16 Offloads: 8

Fielden a bad defender?

He's had issues at points in his Wigan career with a few things but defence was never one of them. A few examples from YouTube could be sought for most players. I could pick out plenty for brilliant defenders like McIlorum and Hansen from last weeks game alone.

We can't expect him to fit straight back in and play like 2010 but it's good to have him back around the squad. He's an experienced head and I feel we need that at the moment.

The av gain stat shows that though.

I always preferred that stat though really I can't remember why but I remember someone showing how that being good doesnt necessarily equal the other being good.

Fielden in 2010 - 102m per game; Coley in 2010 - 92m per game
7.1m per carry; 6.7m per carry
24 tackles per game; 25 tackles per game
0.9 offloads per game; 0.4 offloads per game
2.9 tackle busts per game; 1 tackle bust per game
0.7 missed tackles per game; 1 missed tackle per game.

Statistically Fielden was better than Coley in 2010 and that shouldn't be a surprise because he was almost certainly our best prop.

In the previous couple of seasons Fielden wasn't at that same standard but he was still playing at the same sort of level as Coley was. He was almost certainly not matching what you'd expect considering his wages but he was still a good player to have at that time.

If he could get back to that level of performance he would still be a good addition.

It's quite funny how Fieldens stats are being used against Coleys to show how amazing Fielden is, but isn't it a bit ironic when 75% of the fans on here never wanted Coley as he wasn't Wigan standard and yet his stats are now being used as a yard stick to prove how good another player was, shouldn't it really prove that Coley was a lot better than originally thought and that Stu wasn't as good as he was in the past as he was now performing to Coley's standard