Totally Agree, I have watched the reserves (coached by Wane) and the way Ben Davies and a couple of the other props in the reserves ran the ball in last year leave me in no doubt that Feka and Fielden will be different players next year.. If after half a season we are still lacking in the props and we are in with a shot at a Trophy then its something we should consider.

We need cover in all positions which we have now with Deacon in the halves/ dummy half and players must fight for their place, that goes for Tomkins, oloughlin, richards whoever.. IF you want to wear the cherry and white hoops.. then you have to prove that your worthy, because the days of having a shirt just because your name is Gleeson Fielden or Carmont are over ... and Amen to that!!!

Are you implying that McGuire has put in place some sort of fining system for players who do not reach club set targets?

And you've not even mentioned the way Mossop went, largely at prop, for the team that finished 3rd last year! I'm sure he's in for a big season and could even prove to be the prop we've been missing.

Think it's always been in his contract that he has to reach certain weight limits and he didn't last year for the first time if rumours are to be believed. Perhaps Rogues can confirm.

best goal kicker in super league for me..apart from that i think hes pretty average

I only suggested that it isn't necessarily a waste of cap space. At the end of the day, if a player of Deacon's experience and ability is on a relatively low wage, then I'm largely correct.

But for the sake of peace, perhaps it's time we left this sort of wages speculation to the people who actually have the books in front of them.

Ever thought you may be paying him sod all as a player in 2010, then considerably more as a coach from 2011?

Are you suggesting that a Wigan player would play a season of SL for no payment?

Dave, i'd suggest if you're actually worried about the 25, you go and count the number of players in the first team and look at the names on the sheet, and also bare in mind that 2nd tier cap liability (£50k) only applies if the player plays a salary cap qualifying game (SL or CC) unlike the 1st tier cap.

For example: Liam Farrell, Chris Tuson, Ben Davies, Josh Vievers and Ian Thornley didn't count on the cap at all (1st or 2nd Tier liability) last year as they didn't play a single qualifying game and they were extremely unlikely to be in the top 25 earners.

That left us with 25 players including Mathers, who has now gone - Deacon brings the number back up to 25 plus the aforementioned 5 players.

I imagine IL and Maguire have done the salary cap maths.

The irony of a 'waste of cap' statement, is for it to be a waste you'd need an actual alternative that was prevented from playing because of this. Without the alternative the only true waste is not spending upto the cap in the first place.

Let's hope it wasn't using Mo's calculator.

I'd also dearly love to know who the mystery prop we should be signing is, given we currently have 6, no awesome props seem available (Saints were badly in need of a prop and had to go for Fozzard), our cap situation is going to be radically different for 2011 - and that's even assuming over the course of the next 12 months of the new coaching setup that we're even going to be in the same boat we have been prop performance wise.