I'm on about them having the odd game not playing every week. O'Carroll and Prescott were both given some game time at a young age and will benefit in the years to come because of it.. I know you cant just wait till players get to a certain age then expect the to play every week.

Buffalo my point about bringing you props in I have partly explained in the previous post but it was also intended as a general point about Noble not being willing to drop players who are underperforming. Whatever way you look at it Fielden is massively underperforming and the argument that he is the best we've got doesn't cut it with me. A team where players aren't fighting for positions won;t win very much and what incentive have the young uns got to improve if they've got no chance of any first team time? Noble dropping Smith and bringing Sam in is one of the few examples of him making a positive change that wasn't dictated to him by injuries. If one of the young lads got a place in the first team for even one match their attitude would not be 'I'm going to get mullered' but 'I'm going to go out there give 100% and show people what I'm capable of'. Fielden seems to be the one who thinks he's going to get mullered when he runs in!! I'll excuse the inevitable mistakes the youngsters in our team make but find it very hard to excuse Fielden on his ridiculous salary when he has shown no signs of improvement bar a couple of games at the end of last season.

Imho, Fielden has lot a lot of the bulk that gave him a presence, he even looks small in person nowadays, where when he first arrived he had a presence. He needs a bit more bulk if he's going to carry on playing first team RL for any SL club.

But to be fair it's not just Fielden that's not cutting the mustard at the moment Feka is great whilst we have the ball for his five or six runs, however is a liability whilst we are defending. His lateral movement is woeful, getting back to the defensive line is a chore, I know this isn't his forte, but defence is a team job and is as much about attitude as well. Just before the game they showed a clip of him scoring for us against Les Cats in the first game. Looked a completely different player, carrying a lot less muscle mass, but carrying similar weight.

Coley, the efforts been there in the last couple of games, and there is a couple of decent tackles going in, but his goforward, or lack therein, is not the best. I would be surprised if he's still at Wigan next season.

Fielden has played so many games as a prop from a young age that i think hes basically knackered and his body at the present moment is not up to it. Average career for a prop is fairly long. Look at players like Barrie Mac, Terry O Connor all player the game into their 30's. Difference is Fielden has played the equivalent game time in his career as did any of the 2 ive mentioned.

Also hes not helped by Feka's apparent inability to play for long periods. Either its a fitness issue or Noble wants him in spirts. Noble has been Feka's coach for a while now and this issue needs sorting out. Sorry but Feka is no use on the bench for 50 minutes a game.

Coley recently has looked better than he did last season but still not of the standard we need. If Filden is with us next season then i really hope we can get 2 props than can give him a break. As the way hes going i cant see him playing Rugby much longer as his performances has been shocking recently. He looked better end of last season than he had done for a while. But i think he needs to take a break for his body to recover or he needs to go from prop to second row. As hes getting battered week in week out and its not helping his confidence to be put into that situation

What a tragedy Stuart Fielden's rugby league career has become.

Its hard to believe the difference between what he is and what he once was.

I'd love to see the tape of the Bradford v Wests game - I'm starting to think I dreamt it.

Approaching 30, Fielden should be hitting the peak of his career, but instead it's going downhill, fast.

But here is the problem. Hes played week in week out before he hit 20. He also has played more minutes than anyother prop since SL started and id gues that includes the NRL. Its only so much your body can take before it needs a proper rest. Most sporting careers at the top are about 7-10 years. He has been playing since 1998.

I have the DVD at home and, in that game, he was IMMENSE!

now though, hes finished and needs to retire or go out on loan

I fancied watching some of Fielden's better moments, so I googled him and found this. It's a question and answer session on the bbc website from when he was at Bradford

Robbie, Bradford

A mix of both. As one of Brian Noble's famous quote goes

Does he still do this? And if he's such a terrible loser then no wonder he's not very happy at the minute!!

That is bang on..........he has played enough games to cover one and a half or maybe even two careers!!!!

He played too many games and way too many minutes at a young age!

Saints and Bradford need to be careful that the same does not happen with Graham and Burgess

Talent is overrated eh? Well if I'd 'trained the house down' a little more a few years ago, I could have been the next Joey Johns by now, who'd have thought it?

Obviously Noble is pointing to the fact that talent isnt everything. If you read it properly he mentions attitude well talent without the right attitude is useless. Noble is 100% spot on.

Granted we need to sign a prop, we needed a prop before we signed Roberts, we needed a prop even more before we signed Gleeson, and even more when we loaned out Mossop. Either Noble doesn't see that or there aren't any props out there.

I agree that Davies and Mossop wouldn't be bashing super league front rows about, but having said that neither is Fielden, he's dying at their feet or going backwards and it's only a matter of time before he starts getting really smashed about. He needs to be a big fish in a small pond again, and the way to do that is to play him in the reserves, where he'll only be average but might pick up some form.

If we give one of these young lads a chance they'll jump at it, and we'll see some decent performances from them for a few weeks until they get knackered, but that's all we need! All Davies would need to is play reasonably well for the next 6 games then O'Carroll will return and he can have a rest, or Fielden might even have picked up some form again. I'm convinced that the smart thing to do would be to give Davies a run out and see how he goes, we have no better chance than v Celtic, who are pretty poor anyway.

You cant do it. Like it or not Fielden still adds experience and a lot of hard work in defence however blunt his attack is. The front row is already terrible and throwing a lad in from the reserves who has never played a first team game would be like pressing the self destruct button. Front row is by far the toughest position for a young lad whos never played a first team game before to step into. It would be like cutting our nose off to spite our face. I think until we sign a proper experienced prop then we just have to put up with Fielden.

I don't think it would do any harm to throw a young lad in for a game or two. Young lads (like Fielden was once) tend to be confident and fearless no matter who they are playing against. Something Fielden isn't at the moment.