Just to get something straight, which appears to have completely gone over the heads of some people.

We did not win a GF with Ablett in the centres. We won a GF by getting away from doing that. We were overrun for the first 15 minutes of the GF with plenty coming down Abletts channell. We took the decision, correctly, to swap him and Ellis round. This completely changed the game, then we won a GF.

Would we have won with Ablett staying there? who knows, and who cares. But you can not lose sight of the fact that it was not working and a change was made.

It was also complained about continually on this very board last season when Ablett was used as the centre.

That said, I actually agree that if Ablett is used there this season, I dont see too much of an issue considering the lack of quality he would be facing in the marjoity of games.

Well obviously otherwise I'd have noted otherwise. Stattos find it impossible to deceive but don't mind concealing evidence when it suits.



And only if the year before at Warrington was the Andrew 'Superstar' Johns debut, that game was at the end of 2005.



This revisionist never had him in the centre though, just full back. Looks like he'll have to be a centre now as well. Great kid though, he'll give his all wherever he's asked to play.

let's get something straight.

We won the Grand Final last season.

We did so with Carl Ablett playing centre for many games and large parts of others.

In your opinion a decision within the Grand final was pivotal, in your opinion. There's nothing to say a similar decision couldn't be made (if needed) if we reached this year's Grand Final.

So, to summarise, last year we did win the GF with Carl Ablett at centre.

As you were.

He will and his appalling lack of pace won't be as much of an issue at centre

Watching the match again, and actually taking note of the rugby, you will actually see that I am spon on.

We won a GF where Ablett was switched to second row after 15 minutes of been slightly over run. That is what actually happend, regardless of you wanting to use different arguments.

Does anybody care about that? for me absolutely not.

And like I said, if you read my last point of that quote, I was actually stating the same as you.

I thought that for most of last season Ablett and Ellis swapped mid game, but in the grand final the key change was the Ablett and Senior swapped sides, rather than Ablett and Ellis swapping. ATEOTD, we won the grand final with a very similar looking backline, and have strengthened certain areas through signings and promotions.

:qwzj2fbzHow conescending. For a man wit hsuch questionable observational powers you seem very confident in your opinion. Good for you.

Before anyone goes crazy here, I'd have preferred Leeds to sign a right centre rather than an ageing world class hooker and (failing that) I'd have preferred Leeds to sign a right centre rather than an interchange prop.

You see it all comes down to improving the squad in areas that you know are weak. And not just because we know it but because the whole game knows it.

I presume Leeds tried to find a centre in the off season and failed and so we go with what we've got. A virtually untried in the position Lee Smith was given the shirt, Ashley Gibson had injuries to overcome and in Kallum Watkins we have a genuine prospect but at 17 can't be expected to do the job week in week out at this level.

Senior's unavailability for half the games so far this season just adds to the existing problem.

Gareth, Gareth, Gareth. That is a bit rich seriously coming from you. You been the most condescending arrogant person on these boards.

You get so tied up in arguments and defensive you fail to see that the argument you were making I actually agree with you on.

Ablett did indeed play a part from centre to get us to a final. I never doubted that. I doubted that "we won a GF with Ablett at centre". We started with Ablett at centre, I dont dispute that. But for the first 15 minutes of that game we were over run. That is not opinion its clear and fecking simply to anyone watching. A change was made with Ellis switching to centre, and from there the game changed. Thats not been opinionated or condescending, its a fact of the way the game went.

Like I further stated, would we have won without the change? who cares, we won and thats all that matter. I further stated that should Ablett need to go to centre again, who cares, because the quality of the oppossition this year in that position is hardly going to be too big a problem.

:215aegyi

maybe Adam Mcdougall for a year,


:215aegyi

im suggesting resting senior for some games, which will mean there is space for a player like watkins to get games,

The main advantage we have over most of our rivals is that our young players are, overall, better than theirs, plus we have more that are close to the required standard. Signing an experienced right centre might lead to success in a few more games than might otherwise happen - although who knows - but personally I'm more interested in seeing what we can achieve by sticking with what we've got.

Agreed, we did. Ablett was getting torn to shreds and bluey saw it as did 99% of the fans at the game, he changed it and put Ellis there, which worked. Saints saw a weakness and expoilted it. Luckily we had Ellis to shore up the defence on that side - this season we're not so lucky as Manly showed (albeit was Watkins getting torn to shreds).