After watching the game on Friday I heard Eddie Hemmings comment that Stuart Fielden has 'struggled to find his form since leaving Bradford' and that he was a 'shadow of his former self' which is the first time I have really heard Eddie criticise Fielden -- it was also backed up by Stevo.

What has been the fan's perception of Fielden this season after his apparent return to form at the end of last?

Just to throw some statistics your way:

Staurt Fielden made more tackles than anybody else against Leeds on Friday night but missed more tackles in that one game than in most of his other games combined.

In attack Fielden managed to make 22 metres all game with only Amos Roberts, a winger, faring worse.

Is Fielden past it? Should we be thinking about moving him to second row and putting somebody like Hock in the prop position? and ultimately should we re-sign Fielden when his contract expires?

Your thoughts?

I'm not sure how long Stu has left on his contract, but there's no way we can keep him on the very large wages that Maurice agreed to pay. The problem Stu has is who else would pay anything even remotely similar? When he left Bradford, he could probaby have named his price almost anywhere. Now it's exactly the opposite. I wouldn't be surprised to see him stay at Wigan, but on much less dosh.

22 metres can't be right.

i simply think he isnt worth the money we are paying him

Initial thoughts are 22 metres isn't correct.

I simply am bored to tears about reading the same sh#te on here.

Stu Fielden - is he any good anymore
Feka - to fat
Piggy - to fat
Hock - hit and miss
Mathers - sh#t
Roberts - here for the money etc.....etc

Its the same old shi#e day in day out.
God i am in a bad mood today think i will go kick the cat !

Mathers is sh[ii[/it though.

COOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRECT !

how many times did he take the ball in? at a (poor) average of around 5m per run, that is only 4 hit ups.

surely he cant have done that little work.

how long was he on the pitch?

22 metres doesn't sound right but his form is awful and has been for 2 or 3 years.

Isn't the metreage taken from when the player receives the ball? From kick-offs, teams always kick to Fielden's side rather than Feka's so he'll do 10/15m on each of those runs.

but then he gets tackled and goes back another 9m.

i guess so, but that makes it even more unbelievable that he only made 22m.

If you look at a ballanced frontline of Props i think you would ideally like

1.Top Quality 60 minute enforcer
1.60 minute solid backup Prop
1.Impact Prop
1.Young Prop who can hold his own.

In my opinion we have the latter 2 but the former 2 roles are simply not being fulfilled to an acceptable standard. I think the most we could ever expect of Fielden now is the 60 minute backup Prop.

22 m is a shocking return, i know he gets through a lot of defense but he needs to add go forward. He very very rarely wins the colision anymore and rarely gets us on the front foot he usually gets dumped on his behind after being held up slowing the PTB down even more, Fielden's form echo's that of the team.

Logan was an exaple of the tyoe of prop that fulfilled the supporting role, the likes of Smith and Pongia are the enforcers, we have non of that at the moment, and i think the whole club needs a freshening up from the top down for Fielden to ever get near being a front line Prop again.

It has him down as 3 carries for 22 metres with 1 handling error. There's no way I'm re-watching that game to check though!

That's never right in a million years!

I remember 1 strong carry where he made at least 10/15 meters, running in behind the markers and beating them for a change.

It wouldn't surprise me - I don't remember seeing him all game.

I have absolutely no idea whats happened to Fielden since his Bradford days. I don't buy this theory that one punch ruined his career.

Defensively in the main he is still very good. But his go forward is national league standard and this is a big problem within the team.

This is the same for most of our players which is why I have to question again certain aspects of the coaching.

60 mins a week since he was 18 had more to do with ruining his career.

And people complain about the kids not getting enough game time, he is the prime example of why they should be brought in slow and not thrown in especially in the front row! Look out for this happening with Burgess in the not to distant future!

Its not just RL where this problem exists, look at wendy ball and Owen. He only 28 (ish) and he constanly injured with what are basicly overuse injuries. Slow and steady wins the race.

However, if i had been a wigan prop, and had found out they were looking for a enforcer prop, i would have been mortified and made sure i doubled my efforts to ensure that i was that man! Being told your no use as enforcer as a prop must really hurt!

But it doesnt seem to have made a blind bit of difference!

Just watched it again and these are the true statistics:

Fielden

Tackles 31
Carries 5
Metres 21
Missed Tackles 3
Minutes 46
Mistakes 1

He made 11 metres in 4 carries until the 74th minute where he made a 10 metre run.

If you look at Fielden when he was at Bradford, he looked massive, particularly around his shoulders. He seems to have lost a lot of 'muscle' - I would certainly put him at two stone lighter than when he joined.

He looks more like a second rower than a prop, but he's too slow to play second row.

Basically, he needs to regain that weight (and presumably power) that he's lost.

I said this a good 12 months ago he's still a big guy but imo he's not as big as what he used to be?

Such a fall from grace from the guy who was heads and shoulders above Peacock when they played together!

Honestly maybe a change of clubs or coaches will do him a world of good. Time for Fielden to experience life outside of Nobles coaching?

It wont be, that means he took 4 balls up all game.

and i think that is the problem. He must be earning the most money at the club yet his contribution to the team just doesn't seem to justify it... I'm sick of seeing home just waltz into a tackle - whatever happened to running onto the ball at pace (something Feka does all the time)