He had a pre season in 2009 but picked up a knee injury half way through and missed one of the friendlies due to that.

I'll be the first to admit i'd like to see some improvment from him on a couple of fronts at the start of 2010 but i also feel he's got that improvment in him.

He's not been spectacular but has been solid enough and can get better.

One makes more metres, but makes less tackles, misses more tackles, makes more errors and gives away more penalties, and WAS once a great hooker.

They are different types of hooker. Cunningham is a runner from dummy half, Riddell is a distributing hooker.

Is it any coincidence that Wigan backs have scored more tries than any other back division this season?

Rubbish.

I've rarely seen Mark Riddell actually play poor this season.

His technique, tackle completion, distribution and organizational play is consistantly very good. He just sometimes hasn't raise his game in certain fixtures, and that IMO is mainly down to not taking the line as much as he should.

The assumption that, based on statistics, Riddell is as good or better than Cunningham, is just laughable.

Riddell has never once looked like having the same influence on a game that Cunningham regularly has, and let's not forget that Cunningham is a crock who is coming to the end of his career, not someone who is supposed to be at the top of his form.

The fact that people are talking about a converted SH being a better hooker than our expensively imported specialist should be enough to tell us what level he is currently at.

And this continual banging on about how good he is compared to Higham is as big a misnomer as comparing him to McCormack or Nicky Kiss.

It's not rubbish at all. He has played poorly in games this season and there have been threads on here discussing it.

You are making him into something he isn't by basically saying his only fault is he doesn't take the line on enough.

Dave

How has he played badly? Which aspects of his game has he failed in?

The main criticisms of Riddell's game on this message board has been his fitness and as I have mentioned, his lack of taking on the defence. In general, Mark Riddell is a good player and it's rare that he plays badly.

I think you're judging him off posts you've seen off an internet forum opposed to actually looking at his general all round game.

Wasn't he injured??

If Smith got the BOTD why not Ridell?

I think he was, wasn't he struggling with a knee?

i think riddell will get better but he doesnt seem fit enough which means his game time is limited,when he stayed on in the semi he was found out big time by warrington.i agree when mm playes piggy does better and prob our best performance of the year at murrayfield piggy didnt play

Disagree with that massively to be honest, he's play 50+ minutes a match since MM was out, and although he looks tired, which he always does, he's always one of the first back on a chase.

I doon't think he got found out big time by warrington, just we got done in that area of the pitch because the props around him were useless. We actually did a helluva lot better when he was on the field.

We scored [iall our tries[/i when he was on the pitch.

Do you want to explain to me what the hell your favourite player was doing last night?

His famous distribution was absolutely woeful.

This guy is not improving, and needs to go. You can just see he isn't interested.

I'll answer on his behalf seeing as he's on holiday (Rogues)!

It's taken you 7 weeks to come back and have a go! I suggest that means it's taken that long for you to spot something to have a go at?

Yes he didn't have one of his better games but he we were still a better organised team when he was on the park! He was certainly as good as McCollorum.

We were more in control of the game in the 1st 30 and the last 20 when he was on the pitch.

He did make 1 x terrible pass from dummy half and gave away 1 x penalty last night - That in itself was unusual as his distribution is far better than what we've had for 3 x years and our alternatives this year and he has given away "Massively" less penalties.

His Tackling last night was Fantastic. Often he was coming up out of the line and hitting Props/2nd rowers like Vella & Newton Head on!
I commented in the Hull game at home about 6 weeks ago that in the 1st 25 mins that night he must have made 20+ Big tackles.
He did the same last night.

Where were you last week after Cas game? Headless chickens whilst Piggy wasn't on.

Where were you week before after Hudds Game? Tommy was poor at 9!

Typical lets have a go at someone attitude and preferably an Aussie / one of the usual scapegoats!

Next Week! If we get Saints.
I would give Noble 1 piece of advice.
Get Piggy on the field whenever KFC is on! He outplayed him at our place 1st half and KFC came back on around the 55 min mark and Noble didn't bring Piggy back on for a further 10 mins and in that time he had changed the game!
Gouldings injury and our lack of Hooker interchange at their place early August also meant we couldn't keep him on the field when KFC was on and that cost us in the end also.

What he said. IMO we look alot more orgonised when he is on the pitch

Riddell is a good talker and he brings a little bit calm and experience to the proccedings, but he can get lazy at the play the ball, I think that is down to his conditioning. Hopefully after a full pre season we will see a different Riddell next year. He has a good solid look of a top hooker the boy just needs a little extra juice.
Good point regarding lining him up opposite KFC, never thought about that.