We were already contenders; the addition of Newy helped turn us into the undisputed champions

Much, much more than anything else he achieved on the field for us, Newlove's signing completely changed the mindset of the club and of the fans and sent a massive signal of intent to the rest of RL (and the Pies in particular) that we weren't second-rate also rans any more. It turned us from doom and gloom merchants to top dogs who were going to sweep all before us overnight. Very similar in impact to when City signed Robinho in fact for the youngsters who weren't around then. You can't overemphasise the importance of Newlove - he was the greatest signing the club ever made and would have remained so even if he'd never touched a ball for us. The last 15 glory years wouldn't have happened for us if Bradford hadn't sacked Fox.

I would argue that Shaun McRae was our greatest signing. If Eric Hughes had been at the helm we wouldn't have won in 1996. We'd have dropped points in all of those games where we snatched victory from defeat e.g. Wire away, London away and Castleford away. We'd probably have lost to the pies as well seeing as he never beat them in twelve attempts.

Aside from service to his winger (and kicking) name one other attribute that Loughlin possessed which approached or exceeded Newlove's?

That is the main attribute for a centre. He also had reasonable pace ( not electric but neither was Newlove ), Good vision and could time his pass. He could make breaks and his kicking at the time was very good. Newlove was more of a showy centre, in other words his sidestep and illusiveness stood out. Loughlin did his job with a minimum of fuss and his abilities were recognised by a succession of coaches at club and international level.

He has also got by far the better sense of humour.

He was taller I think...

Newlove was only ever a centre,lockers was also a reasonable full back,so verastility.

He had some of his best games at fullback.

Like I said earlier in the thread, IMO it's a no contest, newlove was a class above lockers but I was a big fan of lockers.

And yet it is worthless if the player in question cannot perform the multitude of other tasks a centre is given.



But he was quicker than Loughlin.



Certainly no better than Newlove.



But not as many as Newlove.



If by "showy" you mean he was the most potent attacking centre Britain has produced in the last thirty years - sure. He was also a damned good winger's centre - as Anthony Sullivan's record attests.



So we've gone from Loughlin being "every bit" as good as Newlove to someone who did his job with the "minimum of fuss". And you've successfully managed to identify one attribute Loughlin had over Newlove - kicking.

All this talk of centres and no one has mentioned Scott Gibbs? Awesome player who, IMO, scored as just as important try at Valley Parade in '96 that Perelini did. In fact I think he broke two fingers in the act of pushing defenders off and scoring.

I think if you go back and watch the old videos from Paul's career you may change your mind on that point. I started watching Saints in 1983 and I still say he is one of the top 3 centres I have seen play for Saints. I would have Jamie Lyon top followed by Lockers and Newlove joint second.



I think that is questionable given that Newlove only played for Saints during the summer era on firm pitches. Loughlin played in winter on swamps. Pre Saints Newlove didn't look any faster than Lockers IMO.




I disagree. Lockers had to work harder to get his winger away. Newlove played in a star studded side which did a lot of the work creating overlaps for Him. Watch the 1988 John Player final against Leeds to see him winning the game for us virtually single handed. He also played a lot better at international level than Newlove which would seem to indicate that with a better quality team around him he would have performed a lot better for Saints than he did.



I think you'll find that honour belongs to Gary Connelly. Also as a huge fan of Sully's I would say he scored a lot of tries without any help at all from Newlove



He did his job with a minimum of fuss because he came through the Colts. Newlove came out of the back of a security van as the most expensive player in Rugby League. That's what I mean by showy.

Scott Gibbs was hard as nails, his defence was as hard as I've seen and certainly wouldn't run straight at him.

I thought he didn't get enough credit for his attack, he was very powerfull player.

Scott Gibbs, Kevin Iro, Jamie Lyon and Matt Gidley where all great Right Centres. Gibbs for me thou was a bloody marvellous player.

Lockers was a damn fine player who played his heart out for his hometown club but let's put this into perspective he was not in the same league as Newlove.