Has vella been carring an injury in recent weeks. He looks a shadow of the player he was a couple of seasons ago. May be that he's struggling with the workload caused by a lack of quality around him or is he just suffering from the effects of a long career in the NRL?

Him and Newton have been suprisingly poor in the last 3games IMO.

Disagree about newton. Far and away rovers best player. Makes me wish even more that we'd got crocker as he's like 1 1/2 clint newtons

You mean Crocker would give away 15 pens a game , and drop 6 easy balls

I think Vella may never have completely got over the knee injury he picked up in the first game. He's been wearing strapping on it. With Fozzard given such a heavy workload early on in the season we were left without much go forward at the back end - very noticeable against Leeds and Wigan. I appreciate what Lovegrove, Wheeldon and Netherton do, but that isn't dominating the opposition.

Hopefully Fozzard and Aizue (possibly Mills too?) will be replaced by someone who can frighten opponents. Players like Feka and Thackray bring risks, but can be used to seize the initiative. Dowes, Cusack, O'Meley and Moa looks like a better balanced quartet than what we have for 2010 at the moment, tbf.

Vella's still a top player IMO. He's of that age and experience to niggle just enough round the PTB to slow the opposition down without giving away too many penalties and gets through a ton of work. Newton is the dog's nads and as JTP said is far and away Rovers best player - a continuous threat. If anything the disappointment in the second half of the season has been Galea. Magnificent in the first half and unbelievable at Murrayfield, he's faded badly. Maybe carrying an injury?

Rovers need a beast of a prop and a hooker. Thackray is not a beast of a prop but could do well at KR as he bends the line and had a good offload. Your hooking options are poor at the moment.

Vella was terrible last night which surprised me. With Fozzard and Wheeldon getting mullered in most of the collisions as well Rovers had no platform whatsoever. Newton tried everything he could but all the damage was done up front Wigan were so much stronger. Rovers need to add some strength up front big time.

That is true, Vella had a poor game which could not have come at a worse time.

We do need to improve our front row for next season, we have struggled this year when playing teams with big packs, especially powerful props and so far we are going to be weaker next year than we were this year.

Spot on.

A rovers fan i know very well (oops! lol) told me a while back that Vella was "gone", the games gone past him he said, i tended to disagree as i thought he was always a good awkward prop who led from the front. From then on ive watched him more closely and can see where hes coing from, injured? possibly, game gone past him? well he aint the player he used to be. He reminds me of the way Bradley Clyde went downhill in his career both in the NRL and over here. Theres only so much hammer a human being can take over the years and some players get thru their careers better.

Personally i think Vella is a victim of having to carry a go forward of late. galea did a lot of the work early season and then has vanished for the 2nd half of the year. Newton has been largely inconsistent. Wheeldon is still average and Macca and Lovegrove etc do their best. Mills is a pudding. Fozzard is over the hill.

Theyve really put pressure on Vella up front.

In fairness he did catch Matt Sing once.

Vella was average last night, and hasn't had a great season We certainly need some more props next year.

Newton was probably our best player last night, as he has been so many times this season.

I'd hope that with an off-season to get his knee right, Vella will be back to his sparkling form of 2007 and 2008. A bit more support for him would not go amiss. I think one of the impressive things about our season is that we improved so much despite Vella's absence/relatively average form. As Mrs B says, he's got great experience - and that'll be even more important in a younger squad next year.