Hasn't anyone noticed he had the likes of Vagana Peacock and Anderson with him in the pack at Bradford. Now he's got a combination of midgets (comparitively) and lard ar*es to work with him. I ceratinly agree he hasn't performed at Wigan but I know which pack I'd rather be in.

Who is next in line to make the step up from the reserves if anyone gets injuried/suspended etc? He may have to step up his game if someone gets promoted and does well and provides some competition.

I feel sorry for him as I rated him alot when he was at Bradford but I think he's just lost an edge over the past couple of seasons, he's no longer in a side like he was at Bradford which would dominate sides and as menionted he had the likes of Peacock, Vagana and Anderson around him to support him.

He's been playing at this level since a teenager at prop and surely that must be catching him up and taken alot out of him making him not as effective now. I still think he's your best prop.

I'm not disputing that. He's clearly in great shape, but is he in the 'right' shape to do a prop forward's job?

You have to be fit to play rugby league, but to be a prop you also need weight behind you. it looks well when a fat blob like Feka does more damage than a finely honed athlete like Fielden.

im not one who gets at fielden - i think hes ok, not value for money or anything but ok.

where wigan fail is that they will never drop a guy like fielden so dont worry about any up and coming players cos theres certain untouchables - generally linked to money and reputation

Do you mean players like Richards, Calderwood, Coley and Smith?

Thats a point I discussed with another poster earlier on in the thread, I think that to play prop effectively you need the balance of the two, lean muscle weight and body fat.

That said, his lean muscle weight never harmed him during his Bradford days.

Fielden has gone back into his shell after getting back to good form for the latter part of last season. He doesn't look like his heart is quite into it at the moment which is a big problem for us as we need him to be at the top of his game and leading us every week.

He's always been a player that only truely turned up when the big games came around and at Bradford he could get away with that as the likes of Anderson and Vagana would do enough work on his off days to see them through. He isn't afforded that luxery here because the rest of the props either aren't good enough to lead a side forward or in Feka's case don't so it for long enough.

As for his future long term at the club i'd offer him a long-ish term deal tomorrow on a vastly reduced deal in the hope that we could sign him a fellow prop to help share the load but i'm not sure he'd accept it until he's considered all his options. If for example a team like Celtic or Salford offered him twice as much as us in a couple of years i reckon he'd take it which probably shows another problem in him. He admitted when he came here that half(and probably more) the reason was for the cash so a move to a team near the bottom of the league probably wouldn't worry him.

Overall i'd be suprised if he's here at the start of the 2011 season.

He made 5 like I said on page 2. One carry he knocked on, one carry made 10 metres. And I counted 3 missed tackles. No idea where they got those stats from.

Compare Peacock's stats from the same game:

28 Carries (Fielden 3)
208 Metres (22m)
20 Tackles (37)

Fielden is not at the races big time and gets banged most times he takes it in. You could say he's been at the top a lot of years and maybe his body is a bit knackered, but so has Peacock and he seems to get better if anything! We were defending most of the game last Friday so maybe not the best game to compare stats as Leeds were on the front foot a lot more. I, like most here, really want to see him turn it around.

There was a point in the game when Fielden carried the ball up (1st half think) when he hit Peacock head on and broke the tackle and kept going. He made 10 meters then and did again in the second half.

There is no way he carried the ball 4-6 times and made 22 meters.

Having said that I think he runs in too upright at the moment and gets hit back a lot. Get his head down a bit and bust the first tackle and his confidence will soar.

He tackels at a high rate, plays a lot of game time, her lacks belief in his own go forward.

I think any coach who has a prop forward that makes just 3 carries in a big game really needs to question that players desire and commitment.

The only reason he made so many tackles is that the leeds forwards targetted him as a 'spot' player. Which is also probably the reason he ended up missing so many.

And now Roberts

Well they are the facts.

I agree with Hoofer.
At Bradford, Fielden was part of the awesome foursome with Vagana, Anderson & McDermott. When McDermott retired they moved Peacock to Prop.
That's a front row we can only dream of.
Fielden's OK, Feka can do enormous damage, Coley isn't at the races and O'Carroll gives 100% but is nowhere near a starting prop. He may well be another Danny Nutley or Andrew Gee but not for another 4-5 years yet.
If rumours were anything like right Richard Moore was to be our fourth experienced prop and if he'd arrived then Coley would have been replaced making a good four. Right now there's no Moore and Coley still isn't doing it.
Fielden and Feka are the only two the opposition have to look out for. Hence the reason we don't often win the battle up front!

I'm no Coley fan, but I think he's been o.k. in the last two games.