Turner, Percival and Jones as 3 centres. If they pick up knocks we've got Matty Dawson to cover at centre. Beyond him we've got LMS who won a Grand Final playing at centre. Then we've got Jack Ashworth who's an academy lad who's a centre. I think we can boast that depth tbh pal.

If we're sticking props at centre, we'll do fine with former England Centre Tony Clubb there.

I understand the point you make but I cannot see how the club can sign a recognised/high quality centre by offering them a backup spot, even assuming that there are centres available of that standard - it is probably one of the most sought after positions given the lack of quality in depth in this country. I suspect most SL clubs are in the same position having two or three good centres at most then having to look at youngsters or players playing out of position to cover.

Percival - sargînson
Turner - gelling
Jones - thornley

Dawson - Charnley/Burgess (played there numerous times at academy & u19 level) j Tomkins (who's also won a GF playing centre) & Bateman
(Silly argument but you started it) LMS - tony clubb (who's played internationals at centre).

Ashworth - Gildart

I think we're pretty well off and wouldn't swap our "depth" and options for any other clubs.

If and I know it is a big if a quality centre became available I would have Gelling and Thornley as the back up.
I totally agree that there is a dearth of quality centres partly due I think to the general thought that it's ok to play players out of position to cover this role. We wouldn't do this with a half back or a loose forward but all teams seem to do it consistently with the centre position.
Maybe if coaches looked at developing more centres as a specialist role rather than concentrating on bulk, impact players, prop come second rowers and "taking the ball in" we may see a more balanced approach to squads and style of play.
Rant over

.
A good debate which only makes February seem a long way off!

Tierney
Manfredi
Thornley
Gildart
AN Other
Hampshire
Powell
Mossop
Tomkins
Dudson
Tautai
Patrick
Bateman

Subs
Sutton
Lloyd
Greenwood
Farrell

Sure I've missed some off, but that's not a bad reserve team is it? Most have reasonable super league experience, and there are a few internationals in there too.

Lever can play prop or in the back row and Doran can play in the halves and hooker to be added to that list.

Fair play, i'd forgotten about Clubb. But he's never won a Grand Final at centre..





I'm not saying you should swap if you was ever given chance, I was simply replying to the claim that your rivals don't have the depth you boast, when in actual fact we have similar levels of depth at centre as you've show here yourself. I'd also forgotten about Matty Fleming who's been promoted to the first team squad this year, as Gildart has for you.

Percival - Sarginson
Turner - Gelling
Jones - Thornley
Dawson - Charnley
LMS - Clubb (I'll agree it's daft but someone earlier on the thread was on about Bateman when he's only played that one game against us at centre?)
Ashworth - Bateman
Fleming - Gildart

You seriously compare Dawson to Charnley???

You seem to have missed comparisons with Burgess and J Tomkins from your reply?

I'm worried about second row cover not the best case scenario. You need three to start and one on the bench, which means we're borrowing one of our four starting props straight away if Lockers gets injured (likely to happen quite a bit) or one of the others (bound to happen over the course of the season) or we're down to throwing in Lever/C.Farrell who are more or less debutants. I don't really buy that Tautai could get by in the back row either, he doesn't look nearly mobile enough.

Surely Gildart needs to play a few games at Super League level and prove himself before being dubbed as the "best young centre in the game?"

The step up from 19's to Super League is astronomical; Gildart has done nothing yet.