Our centers 'race to the bottom'...

[Papacito]

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.

Personally I'd be putting my money into 1,6,7,9 instead of centres. These guys touch the ball a lot more and create the opportunities for centres to finish.

Not saying centres are unimportant, but I'd always take a gun half who can create a gap for an average centre than the other way around.

 

[Halbrowne61]

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 ..

Two underrated stars that year, they defended well and created good opportunities. Don’t seem to have solid centres like that any more.

 

[batboy]

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.

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.

Finally we can agree on something...
Wasn't that long ago, Centres were making north of 600k...

Centre is the almost the most important position on the feild....
It's where all the hard decisions are made.
A good one will make a side, A bad one will cripple it...

Look at what Gagai does for an ordinary Knights side....
He's immense!!

Great point on the Immortals.

 

[batboy]

Just a few of the wonderful “weapons” our whipping boy has to pass to. Reserve graders who came to the club for an easy earn.

You mean, Players can be absolute puss, Standing flat, looking lost and a good half should still
be able to set them up for glory in the red zone no matter what?

That can't be right.....

 

[ElleryHanley]

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.

Vital BOTH centers can defend their edges though.

You can get by with two average centers if they can defend.

Ours have no passing skills, no try scoring ability, 'and' both Talau and AJ can't defend / can't read on D.

Look how many tries we have conceded on simple draw and pass plays where one of them rushes up and misses by a mile.

 

[ElleryHanley]

Melbourne have always carried one or two centres who are pretty bland but they have other players in the backs who light it up (blokes called Slater, Inglis, Papenhuysen and Munster were a bit handy). You don’t need great centres but you do need attacking weapons somewhere in your backline. You’re spot on It’s also a difficult place to defend so that’s very important if you go with a nuffy.

Agreed...but Melb also make sure those centers can defend.

Bad reads and they spend weeks in reggies / swapped immediately.

Ours stay in the team no matter what.

 

[batboy]

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.

That's only been with the emergence of the freak Winger and Back Rowers
in the last 7 years or so....
Back Rowers these days can move like centres and the Wingers are monsters...

When Jennings went from the Roosters to Parra in 2016 he was on 700k+...
That's 7 years ago - At the Roosters!!
We paid well over 600k for Lawrence as far back as the early 2010's....
The good centres were certainly paid until the shift more recently,

Of course - The drop in pay now coincides with the lack of good centres in the comp....
They're all heading for the Back Row or staying on the wing to get paid.

 

[batboy]

Melbourne have always carried one or two centres who are pretty bland but they have other players in the backs who light it up (blokes called Slater, Inglis, Papenhuysen and Munster were a bit handy). You don’t need great centres but you do need attacking weapons somewhere in your backline. You’re spot on It’s also a difficult place to defend so that’s very important if you go with a nuffy.

You see the good teams will always pair up a young centre with experience inside and outside him, Or vice versa - If they have young fellas on the wing or back row, They always make sure there's an old head beside them....

Not like us,
We pay a shite tin to keep the young talent
- Line them up together and then wonder why after 10 years the winger still can't defend on the wing....

We should have thrown everything at Beau Scott back in those days... Even he was almost done.

 

[batboy]

Two underrated stars that year, they defended well and created good opportunities. Don’t seem to have solid centres like that any more.

Elfords kick chase in the grand final was all time....

We got 2 quality humans at the perfect time in their careers, and put them in the right side....
Both Elford and Fatz never played that well before or after their years here.

Super lucky on both those lads

 

[Stevec]

I've been saying for over a year we lack centers ,Toa is all we've got and the whole team is no longer racing to the bottom they've arrived .No depth no class half's. We are now last and don't expect anymore wins
A month ago we had a footy team but a couple of injuries and strange moves by those who run the show have completely stuffed it up !
By the way any Recruits ?

 

[Tiger Stripes]

Personally I'd be putting my money into 1,6,7,9 instead of centres. These guys touch the ball a lot more and create the opportunities for centres to finish.

Not saying centres are unimportant, but I'd always take a gun half who can create a gap for an average centre than the other way around.

You are missing a very important point.
The centres let in the tries through poor defence. No trust in their partner to get his opposite number.
Do it more than once and morale drops for the forwards working their arse off for a couple of useless centres!

 

[InBenjiWeTrust]

Vital BOTH centers can defend their edges though.

You can get by with two average centers if they can defend.

Ours have no passing skills, no try scoring ability, 'and' both Talau and AJ can't defend / can't read on D.

Look how many tries we have conceded on simple draw and pass plays where one of them rushes up and misses by a mile.

IMHO, we finally found our RC - To'a.

 

[Merlot]

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.

beau refused to give him any ball in the last few years both of them were here

 

[Merlot]

Very accurate point. We tend to talk about the Tigers players in a vacuum. The morale of the better players must take a massive hit when the brain dead errors creep up, making everyone across the board look ordinary. Hence why most last one contract and disappear.

any thing positive the club has done lately,you can share with us,

 

[Merlot]

Signed Api, Bateman, Klemmer, Ice.

Sheens before that.

Then went back to being knuckleheads.

yep,no doubt

 

[Merlot]

Signed Api, Bateman, Klemmer, Ice.

Sheens before that.

Then went back to being knuckleheads.

it is time for Sugar cakes and his Financial Dom to depart the CEO

 

[Tucker]

Personally I'd be putting my money into 1,6,7,9 instead of centres. These guys touch the ball a lot more and create the opportunities for centres to finish.

Not saying centres are unimportant, but I'd always take a gun half who can create a gap for an average centre than the other way around.

What gun halves do you have in mind?
All the talk of how important the spine is has been generated by ex players who all played there.
When I played if you were in the spine, you were a pussy…with the exception of the hooker.
Centres had my respect though…they were the backrowers of the backline.

 

[Moh]

Where we are now is the reason I didn't want to see Kev Naiqama go way back when.

It was the same at that time, we just never had better. And Kev had enough good games in him.

Simona/Kev combo was probably the last half decent one we had? Those guys could create something out of nothing, if you excuse the brain explosions that came with it.

It's the exact same reason I don't want to see Brooks go. If there was someone better, sure.

 

[Papacito]

You are missing a very important point.
The centres let in the tries through poor defence. No trust in their partner to get his opposite number.
Do it more than once and morale drops for the forwards working their arse off for a couple of useless centres!

While it's absolutely true that centres need to be good defenders, the reality is a little more complicated.

Every NRL club works on getting overlaps and numbers out wide. Even the best centres can't stop that.

 

[Papacito]

What gun halves do you have in mind?
All the talk of how important the spine is has been generated by ex players who all played there.
When I played if you were in the spine, you were a pussy…with the exception of the hooker.
Centres had my respect though…they were the backrowers of the backline.

We no doubt have a different point of view on this one, but the 2023 stats show without a shadow of a doubt that our problem is creating opportunities, not finishing them.