So u like Fielden then????

IMO Paleaaeseena is a bit of a luxury player. Sure, he gets the Wigan fans going when he comes on in short stints but he's never going to be as important as a Graham or Peacock type who can play 60-80 minutes putting in solid yards and a strong defensive workload.

The game against Leeds did nothing to change my mind. IIRC he only made one significant bullocking run and lost possession immediately afterwards. Otherwise his impact on the game was close to minimal.

In his first season with Wigan his weight seemed about right and if he can return to this and play longer stints he may be worth it...

shame we dont have anyone of that ilk

I think you're spot on here. In 2006 he was in far better shape and I pray that we can get him back to that in the off season.

I also agree with the 'luxury player' point. A luxury player can only really be afforded when you have a great front row to support and we don't have that. Fielden's poor form and Feka's limitations are the two main reasons why we need to recruit props.

feka needs to keep his weight but turn his fat into muscle

Up close, you could see the Leeds players panicking whenever he got the ball. It's a regular criticism of Feka that he doesn't do enough, but he has a huge psychological effect - on both the opposition and the home side - as well as the work he requires the defence to do to stop him, and his ability to offload. And to be fair, that one bullocking run he made was one more than Peacock made (though I'd agree that I'd sooner have Graham than Feka if push came to shove).

That's far from a minimal contribution to what was in effect a cross-the-park annihilation of the Rhinos, in particular in the forwards, where they were on the back foot for the last 70 minutes.

To dismiss Feka as a short stint player who doesn't do enough work is too simple a reading of his involvement. As a Wigan fan who can be very critical of players if I think they're letting the colours down, I'm very happy with him at present. He may need to lose a little poundage, though the question then would be is he still able to bust.

dont we all.

but yet again he will come back from pre-season with an extra 1-2 stone and spend a dozen games puffing and panting andd being ineffective

For me he does some very good things when on the pitch, yes we could do with a little more game time out of him as well as improving his general fitness. But for the key issue are the other props we put around him, get those right and along with Paleasina we'll have a great frontrow.

Watched the 2006 season review last night and he looked miles fitter back then give him a 3 month ban from the weetabix

When Paleaaesina was first signed years back there were pictures posted on here of him playing for NZ Warriors. There was one of him running head on at a defender in which he looked like a prime athlete..........thats how he should be now and he'd lose nothing from his game imo but it's all on his shoulders to want to do it which i doubt tbh,

If anybody knows which pic i'm on about and would like to post it put it on.

I don't but I know the one you mean - the pic where the defender was ting himself.

I'd be interested to know what the coaching staff want off Feka though - it may be that they don't want him to lose any weight for whatever reason. Certainly if they do they should set a target in the off season with a strict diet and training plan. Feka as a professional player should have the discipline to follow it.

i want him in the same mold as moi moi, a no-nonsense sh[ii[/ithouse forward

Feka doesnt do a "bad" job, he does exactly what is needed. The question we really need to ask is, if we could get him fitter, could he do it for longer without losing the effect?

feka isn't the problem with our front row.

The problems attributed to our props is down to fielden not having enough of a threat going forward at the moment, rather than feka's lack of defence.

If fielden punched a few more holes in the defence no-one would be talking about feka's game time.