Our centers 'race to the bottom'...

ElleryHanley

ElleryHanley

Well-known member
Honestly, I have never seen anything like our centers this season in all my time watching footy.

Naden started okay and then got suspended...again....came back in State Cup and barely looked interested / did nothing. Last night he, literally, gave up on a play and was outhustled by Kane Bradley (a former wests state cup bench player)...

Talau last week turned in one of the worst center performances I have ever seen...and then AJ last night says "whatever you can do Tommy, I can do worse" as he showed a complete inability to read D...or pass...or do any basic center play...

Most state cup sides have better centers than Talau and AJ, yet both keep getting into our 17...

Then we have ToA...who turns in the best center display from a Tiger in ages. So, we move him to 6 because "he can play fullback, and that is the same as a 6 nowadays"...yeah, except he can't play fullback. Every game there in state cup he was terrible and he has no halves skills.

That leaves Reilly...who I said will never make it, but has actually played well in state cup. Yes, his D can be bad...but at least he can pass a ball and score...

Reilly may well be our second best center now behind ToA. That says it all...and he likely will never get picked anyway as Sheens sees something in AJ / Talau no one else does.

It is honestly a competition for who can be the worst. Talau / AJ will go down as historically bad...both making the Blake Ayshford era look like prime Mal Meninga....
 
We've had issues at centre for years and the club has done nothing to address it.

Naden can be OK but doesn't seem like he can keep his head in the game.

AJ, Talau, Ogden, Reilly... they're all flops.

Toa looked OK but he'll never be a 5/8.
 
Demps said:
We've had issues at centre for years and the club has done nothing to address it.

Naden can be OK but doesn't seem like he can keep his head in the game.

AJ, Talau, Ogden, Reilly... they're all flops.

Toa looked OK but he'll never be a 5/8.
Click to expand...
Yeah, we literally have had issues at center for a decade (as you said)...

And you are 100% right, the club have never addressed it. We have always just put 'athletes' into the centers, rather than players who actually can do the basics like defend...draw and pass...

Feledy is our big hope, but he is still a kid. We need to prioritise the position.
 
Demps said:
We've had issues at centre for years and the club has done nothing to address it.

Naden can be OK but doesn't seem like he can keep his head in the game.

AJ, Talau, Ogden, Reilly... they're all flops.

Toa looked OK but he'll never be a 5/8.
Click to expand...

Said it a thousand times here - the last NRL level centre we bought to the club was Paul Whatuira…
The hardest position to play on the field and we’re trotting out nuffies…
 
batboy said:
Said it a thousand times here - the last NRL level centre we bought to the club was Paul Whatuira…
The hardest position to play on the field and we’re trotting out nuffies…
Click to expand...
Thought Simona could do the job but he became a crook.

Literally have a handful of centre options and they're all subpar... should've been addressed years ago.
 
Demps said:
We've had issues at centre for years and the club has done nothing to address it.

Naden can be OK but doesn't seem like he can keep his head in the game.

AJ, Talau, Ogden, Reilly... they're all flops.

Toa looked OK but he'll never be a 5/8.
Click to expand...

Naden is 28 this year.

As a reggies center cool as a starter he is ordinary.

Expecting more from him just won’t happen if anything he will slow down as well over the next few seasons.
 
Demps said:
Thought Simona could do the job but he became a crook.

Literally have a handful of centre options and they're all subpar... should've been addressed years ago.
Click to expand...
Simona was an NRL winger for mine, just was being played at centre cos that’s were he played juniors…
Could have been the best winger in the game if he was at the Roosters or some such
 
ElleryHanley said:
Honestly, I have never seen anything like our centers this season in all my time watching footy.

Naden started okay and then got suspended...again....came back in State Cup and barely looked interested / did nothing. Last night he, literally, gave up on a play and was outhustled by Kane Bradley (a former wests state cup bench player)...

Talau last week turned in one of the worst center performances I have ever seen...and then AJ last night says "whatever you can do Tommy, I can do worse" as he showed a complete inability to read D...or pass...or do any basic center play...

Most state cup sides have better centers than Talau and AJ, yet both keep getting into our 17...

Then we have ToA...who turns in the best center display from a Tiger in ages. So, we move him to 6 because "he can play fullback, and that is the same as a 6 nowadays"...yeah, except he can't play fullback. Every game there in state cup he was terrible and he has no halves skills.

That leaves Reilly...who I said will never make it, but has actually played well in state cup. Yes, his D can be bad...but at least he can pass a ball and score...

Reilly may well be our second best center now behind ToA. That says it all...and he likely will never get picked anyway as Sheens sees something in AJ / Talau no one else does.

It is honestly a competition for who can be the worst. Talau / AJ will go down as historically bad...both making the Blake Ayshford era look like prime Mal Meninga....
Click to expand...
We've had bad centres for a decade. The recruitment in this place stinks and always has.
 
ElleryHanley said:
It is honestly a competition for who can be the worst. Talau / AJ will go down as historically bad...both making the Blake Ayshford era look like prime Mal Meninga....
Click to expand...
Agree with most of what you are saying, but to be fair, Blake Ayshford did have a good season somewhere around 2010 or 2011 before he fell off the cliff.
 
It’s funny, I brought this up a month ago and the response on here was ‘who cares, centres aren’t important’….
Good to see there are still plenty on here who don’t think this way.
We need to go old school with our centres and make them the focal point in defence whilst being more than capable of putting their wingers away into space. To’a has shown he can step into this role. Let’s try the young fella Feledy out to partner him.
 
I'm the odd one out here, but centres don't win you comps. There's a reason why it's the lowest paid position on an NRL roster.
 
Papacito said:
I'm the odd one out here, but centres don't win you comps. There's a reason why it's the lowest paid position on an NRL roster.
Click to expand...
It’s a definite movement over the past few years and NRL coaches are at fault.
However.
Centre is an extremely important position if you are fair dinkum and playing this game as it was meant to be played. 6 of the 13 immortals are centres.
These guys were not just brilliant attacking players, but they were excellent defenders as well.
A really good centre can make your halves and wingers function better, and they can aid the fullback with setting a defensive line.
They should be prioritised.
 
we had two unwanted dudes back in 2005 that actually turned out to be ok for a year or so… Elford and Whateruia ..

I think the difference was that they actually got some coaching from the Sheenius back then… unlike what happens now when everyone just seems to go through the motions coaching wise ..
 
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