No we will sign dobson on loan and break the salary cap.

Don't mind in the league but its a potential cup final vs Wire with Lockers or Mellor in halves that I'd be worried about. Couldn't stand losing to them and don't think Mellor is there mentally to play at the type of game and don't think Lockers is that good a 6 to be there in a final.

We could always sign Patrick Ah Van and play him at 7

that may be so, but these are the cards we have been dealt - what other options do we have ?
if the game plan works well in the league games and we win the semi, then why should the same player crack in the final ?
i remember tommy getting mom in the GF after having his game consistently attacked on this board for the entire season. how badly did sam play in CC at wembley after such a superb season up until that point ?
finals are odd games. i saw an entire team collapse at wembley when we played sheffield !!!

At this stage I'd be inclined to play Mellor alongside finch for the Widnes Bradford and wakey games and see how he goes. Iv not seen much of him while hes been at Widnes but I thought he played pretty well when he was given half hour at Salford. Give him one last chance to show he can be a Wigan player. Then reassess the situation after those games and see which combination is going to be the best to take us in to the back end of the season

It does make some sense doesn't it.

We've got three options as far as i can see;

1-Promote/shuffle from within. A number of options here with either bring Mellor back, move Sam to 6 and Finch to 7 or play Lockers at 6 with Finch at 7 again.

2-Pay a fee and get Smith in early or make a Dobson type signing from the NRL.

3-Get Deacon out of retirement

The first option is the one we will probably go down but it's very messy moving players around. Your moving two settled players from their normal positions and asking them to play 6 whilst moving Finch to 7. I know Sam and Lockers are good enough to do it but it's a lot of swapping and changing. Looking at players within the club Mellor doesn't look up to, Russell has question marks and Powell is injured isn't he?

The 2nd option defo viable and we've seen it work with Dobson in the past. If we get the right player in they will probably have some match fitness but will take a few weeks to get up to speed and also get to know the club

Deacon and the 3rd option is all based on his fitness. We can guarantee he knows the systems, players, coach and club so he will be up to speed in that regard. I'd say it's move convenient to bring Deac's fitness up to speed rather than trying to fit a new player into the system.

Very interesting to see what happens

Deacon? Are we being serious? It isn't like we've lost two or three of our pivots, we've lost 1. There's more than enough experience still there in Finch to enable Mellor or another young HB to take this opportunity.

It's unfortunate, yes. But it's not panic mode, we were planning to rotate over the next few weeks anyway, chance for someone to step up.

He'd kick more than Charnley, the guy is a phenom

One point has been overlooked, Tommy's , DEFENCE, we are going to miss that no matter what.

If Mellor was seen as good enough he wouldn't have been sent to Widnes on a full season loan. He would have been given opportunities to impress for a new contract. If he was in our plans I'm sure we'd either have signed him up by now or give him more opps in the first team like we've seen with other youngsters like Logan, Crosby, Spencer etc. After that Powell is currently injured and not played 1st grade rugby.

I'd rather see Williams or Hampshire than Mellor don't thinks he's mentally a Wigan player from what I've seen of him. Throw a youngster in vs Widnes and Bradford while we look at options.

Have people forgotten deacon from last season? Poor in defence that was masked by an inexperienced joel charnley partnership and regularly making poor offensive decisions. Massive step back for me.

Every option from Chase, Smith, Mellor to Lockers is a step down from Tommy.

I don't think Mellor is likely to make it at Wigan but the reason he's out on loan at Widnes is not because he's not as good as the other young players at Wigan, it's because he needs first team rugby and is good enough to play in Super League regularly.

What would be the point in keeping him in the under 20's every week or sending him back to the Championship on dual registration? He's been there and done very well and was ready for the next step up.

The reason Logan Tomkins, Crosby and Spencer are still at the club is more likely to be because no team was interested in taking them out on loan.

If we went down a temporary Aussie option would you take Matt Orford on a short contract?? Not got a club ATM but he did only manage 6 games last year so wouldn't be too sure on his fitness