Indeed. People could compare Hock to lots of hard working players or players who are consistent throughout a game but that simply isn't the type of player Hock is.

I find it surprising that so many think we'd be better off without Hock or that Farrell is much better considering Hock was good enough to make the Dream Team last year, was one of our best players overall, was no doubt quite high in the 1-2-3's after each game and was generally praised for how well he was doing after returning from his ban.

Farrell is doing brilliantly but there's a massive deficiency in his game and in that of Hansen, Hughes and Tuson too - they don't offload well enough, if at all. We caused so many problems with Hock taking the ball into contact and offloading to Tomkins and we just don't have that threat anymore. Farrell has only made 1 offload this year while Hock has already been creating tries for Widnes with his offloads.

Often second rows are about partnership. Potter the brilliant defender and Goodway the fantastic attacking runner. Farrell and Hansen seem quite similar. If you then had Hock off the bench then you would have a trio of second rowers offering everything.

if were playing this game, i think id rather have joel back than hock.

Farrell and Hansen and Joel. Nice thought.

Doubt it will happen but you never know.

The kids a machine. www.superleague.co.uk/match_report/8799

The kids a machine. www.superleague.co.uk/match_report/8799

In an ideal world you want forwards to excel at everything but I think Farrell would be a good shout in an England pack provided he's paired with someone who complements his abilities.

His tackle on Menzies last Friday was a game changer.
Had the Catalans man scored when we were 6-0 up it could have been a different game. I think Wigan would have still won due to far greater fitness levels but a score then would have raised the Dragons intensity and changed the nature of the game.
Well done Liam!

I'm sure he gave away at least 1 penalty as well.

Farrell has won Wigan's player of the month award for February and in a straw poll on twitter, taken by George Riley, asking who has been the best player so far this year, Farrell finished top with 30% of the vote. He had big shoes to fill at the beginning of the season starting in a position occupied in previous seasons by internationals Gareth Hock, Ryan Hoffman and Joel Tomkins and at the moment seems to be doing a great job.

To see how well he's doing in comparison to the last three premier second rowers we've had I've compared Farrell's stats per game so far with these players stats per game for the season they were a starting second rower, that is 2010 for Joel, '11 for Hoff and last year for Hock.



Although it's probably too early to draw significant conclusions, at the moment he is comparing favourably in most categories. He's averaging more metres, carries, tackles and breaks as well as missing fewer tackles (none) and making fewer errors. He is giving away more penalties though and not offloading anywhere near as much which may explain his low error count.

Is Farrell now as good as any of these players were for us and is he ready for a spot in the world cup team? It seems as though he may be, I hope he'll be able to play at the level he currently is for the rest of the year and many more and not leave after having one good year like the last three have.

Turning into a quality player is Farrell, works very hard in defence and has that cutting edge in attack. If he can develop his offload game a bit he'll not only fill the gap of Hock but will easily surpass him. Slightly surprised at the stats above of him giving away more penalties than Hock, I'd never noticed he gave many penalties away.

Haven't watched the TV coverage yet, but he was my MoM tonight, and yet again I don't remember him missing a tackle...

He was immense again tonight. A tackling machine!