MP will have to make the call on Powell sooner or later, everything is so slow, if the opposition sprint out at our 1st/2nd receivers everything stops dead.
If a muggins like me can see this you know all the opposition can.

I didn't call your opinion rediculous, i pointed out Forber is a very inexperienced player as it stands and it's is far too early in his career to be claiming him as our best hooker by a country mile, and i stand by those comments. He has the potential to be, but until he has some more games under his belt and shows he can perform to them standards at this level it is all if's. but's and maybe's. I agree about giving the youth a chance i am all for that, especially when established players are underperforming and i even pointed out Leigh as a potential game for him to feature a couple of pages back.

Field played basically all of his NRL games at stand off, it was us who started playing him as a fullback. I still rate Cust, as i did when we signed him, i have seen him perform to a high standard in the NRL at both Stand Off and Hooker. He has not reached that level yet for Wigan for whatever reason, and i am willing to try something new with both moving to positions that are familiar with and potentially bringing French into more involvment.

I wasn’t pointing the ridiculous statement at yourself BW apologies if you thought that it was.

When you say Field and Cust played in the nrl how many games of completing 80 minutes at 6 did they complete? I don’t know the actual answer but I know combined it is very low.

Unless there is considerable improvement I think Leyth away we will be (pardon the pun) lambs to the slaughter. We need a shake up and there is virtually zero options using proven experienced players hence my suggestion of Forber. Cust may well be an alternative at 9 but I think we just move the elsewhere as we don’t have an experienced proven 6 to call on.

The first half was what killed us. Gradual torturous loss of the arm wrestle to the superior pack and we couldn't recover. To be honest I thought the attitude second half was fine. Just from 12-0 in those conditions we left ourselves too much to do. To be fair though Cats played well over the 80 mins, controlled proceedings, and defended when the time came and were well worth the win.

Some things come as no surprise - lack of go forward in both front and second row, the age old problem at 9 - and I think we will need to try and dip in to the market to get a body or two in to rectify it in the pack. Lack of intensity in these dogfight games, some lazy/passive defence, some poor discipline at times, and people like French barely getting the ball are more disappointing aspects and need sorting out ASAP.

Also, why have Cust and Smith switched sides this season? Cust whenever I see him play seems to like to step off his left foot as one of his go to options and going the other side surely negates that.

Also seems totally unnecessary to me when we've already got new centres and the right second row trying to build combos with those around them, to also have the halfbacks getting settled in on the opposite side is maybe a bit too much.

Out of his depth according to a Whitehaven supporting pal of mine.

He isn't exactly a big Wigan fan though so may just be using that as a reason.

Loan deals are difficult and I’m not a fan of them.
You are not really part the club and could be keeping a local lad out of the team. I think moving from a Wigan culture and all the benefits of a SL club to a part time set would a difficult environment for a lot of youngsters.
I’d rather we had a proper reserves competition played on a weekly basis. I’m hoping that this will be part of the IMG strategy going forward.

Agree there

I’d second the statement that Tom Forber is the best hooker in the squad and I’d rather him play than Powell. He’s quick out of dummy half and tackles better than Powell.

What on earth

He hits harder, tackles well above his weight. Book mark this post and review it in a few years.

Sam Powell has been one of the best defending hookers in the league for the past 7 year. But yeah some 18 year old whose never played against men is better defender.

I’m in agreement we need to start looking at alternatives to Powell but some of the comments are ridiculous.

I hope Forbers a great player for us

Just because you’ve not seen Forber do it doesn’t mean you can discredit someone’s opinion who has seen it. Powell works hard and does lots of tackling, Forber hits harder and works hard and does plenty tackling.

If both players were starting their careers now then Powell wouldn’t get a look in.

Dying to know the theory being Cust and Smith switching sides.

French scored a bag full last year when Smith was with him
On the right. Now Marshall has scored a load so far this year now Smith has moved to the left.

Cust is bad.