Fa'afili had Gleeson inside him....... unfortunately none of our centres have anywhere near his skill level.

Fa'afili, to.his credit, had a decent jump and catch.

i was hoping the Jorge Taufua rumour was true to be honest, but anyone would be an improvement

and yes before you all start i have played rugby world cup 95 on the mega drive so i know what I'm talking about

Is he any better than that slow overweight 30 something Aussie that came here for a holiday* ?

Think his name was Chris Hicks.....


(*as a previous Wires forum assumed when he signed).

Whenever I've watched the NRL on premiersports Kevin Naiqama has played centre, I've never seen him play on the wing. And he looks quick enough to me.

I hadn't heard of Chris Hicks before we signed him but from memory those that had said he was a speedster. ..One of the eels fastest...

And if he was overweight. ...how did we ever sign Solomona. ..

Chris Hicks was a brilliant signing & it was a ridiculous decision to tear his contract up in favour of giving J.Monaghan a job with his bro.

As for Henry Fa'afilli he also had a lot of assistance from the boot of Lee Briers.

As for recent years,for whatever reason, our player recruitment policy has generally been substandard.

I think it was a tough decision to get rid of Hicks, but ultimately the right one. He would have been 34 the following season and would have been his last. He was also experiencing 'back issues' wasn't he? He only went on to make a handful of appearances in the NRL the following year.

JMonas came in as a 29 y/o test player, who went on to score 145 tries in 145 appearances over 5 years. He, along with Hicks must go down as one out our most successful SL imports.

Who was it that said better to get rid of a player a year early than a year too late? The 5 years service we got from Monas suggests we made the right call on that one for me personally.

Hicks goes down as one of my favourite players mind.

It was Hicks idea to let him go, he got a full years pay and we signed Ping due to his availability.

You probably claimed it was a cost cutting measure at the time.

I was actually a critic of hicks signing without actually seeing him play - thinking him as being an Aussie here for a final pay day.

I was 100% wrong.

He was one of the finest wingers I've ever seen play in p&b. If not the finest since watching in the 70's. His hat trick at the cc final was unbelievable. Joel with speed. Imagine them 2 or him and john Bevan in this team... Drools. especially with gleeson and King.....

I loved Chris hicks and Henry Fa'afili, Fa'afili did have a lot of help from Gleeson and in the end he played in the centres and was much better. Hicks is one of the best wingers we've ever signed and i had no clue at all who he was before he came over but ended up being amazing

Never forget that try in the semi against Wigan! Will live with me forever

Yup, was probably 07 when penny hit the scene, we had an injury crisis and ppl started getting shifted around, gleeson was playing 6 and 13 and fa'afili moved to centre.

We turned on him partway through his tenure here as he was not turning for kicks and was costing us a la lineham.

He was a quality finisher though, no question.