It's interesting to note that Percival has bulked up significantly over the off season, he is now:

4kg lighter than Jonny Lomax
The same weight as Lance Hohaia
1kg heaver than Luke Walsh
1kg lighter than Gary Wheeler

So he's not as skinny as we think him to be anymore, admittedly he is slightly taller than the others but not by much. It could be a good year for him.

Didn't makinson play for knights last year - aka rep honours

I do fear he will go the way of Gardner ... But the Wigan home game has gone someway to dispel my concern.

Melis defence is too weak to be considered "best super league centre" - his tackle to missed tackle ratio is shocking! (97:30) - turner, who saddened claim is dire in defence is (465:49) roughly 3x better! Jones, who I'd call a defensive centre is (640:20). There's no doubt Meli is great in attack, but it's easy to be when you do so little defensive work!

I'm genuinely struggling to name someone who would be a standout contender for best centre ...

I don't think his size was a problem. He could do with being bigger but I don't think it was a major concern.

Brown took him out because he was missing tackles but imo he was just being targeted as he was young and wasn't just ready at that moment in time. We know he can tackle as he was exceptional in his first few games against big clubs but like I said, he just wasn't ready at that time and Brown was correct to get him out.


With ball in hand, he was our go to back.

From the St Helens Star:



He does look like he's beefed up a bit.

Looks good.
A raised a point a couple of years ago that the skinny/wiry kids like Foster and Gaskell, Tomkins from the other side and Roby going back a few years seem a lot more durable than the chunky lads like Eastmond, Lomax and Wheeler (all of whom were having injury periods around that time).

Going back to the Turner to Stand off.
I think most would say that Turner has done a good job at Centre. Far better than the much vaunted Shenton.

Now if you look at his skills as a player and the skills that Kevin Brown had when playing centre. Brown (the coach) has taken a somewhat shakey but decent centre in Kevin Brown and moulded him into a Stand Off.
If he can do that there is an arguement that he has form for taking players from one position and finding them a better one.

Even with Lomax last year he showed that he can take a player who has played one role and find a better position that matches their skill set.

I think benefit of the doubt should be given on this one as his form for moving players is good. It does worry me that in the Centre's we will be at bare bones.

Kev Brown has a rugby brain and good hands.

Are you saying that brown was a better centre than turner is? That's a very harsh judgement!

If turner doesn't have those, what does he have?

Yep, but when he was playing Centre I would not have rated him highly enough to play halfback. He would not even have been in my list of top 5 centres.

No, I'm saying brown was more suited to stand off than Turner.

I'd never have put Brown as a stand off ever, so lets see if Turner can make the move too.

If not we have not lost much as 6 was always going to be our weakest link this year.

To be fair, Brown was a stand off all throughout his junior days so it was hardly a shock when he was picked there for Huddersfield.