I think a lot of the handling issues this season (for all teams) are down to the change of ball. In the RL press in the last couple of weeks several players have slated the Rhino ball as being like a bar of soap when you have sweaty hands compared to the old Steeden balls.

As for handling errors, Thornley, prior to last night's match, had made 11 and Gelling 14.

Josh had made 28 and Sam 26. Get rid of the pair of them!

I thought he did ok last night. Took his try superb, looked a threat with ball in hand ans looked to pass to Burges whenever possible.

Terrible! I doubt wigan will keep him on. He will be at Cas by 2015

There always has to be a player for some fans to call rotton.

Gelling now seems to be the flavour.

Off the top of my head over the last few years:

Gelling
Fielden
Pryce
L Tomkins
Feka
Mathers

Finch

hang on now.
there is a big difference between calling someone 'rotten' and having a debate about the merits and capabilities of players.
centre is the one real weakness in our team at the moment, so it is only right that we should debate the merits of those vying for that position.
from what i have seen on this thread, the debate has been of a high level and has not resorted to name calling yet. Lets stop this sillyness now and get back to reasoned discussion of our biggest area of concern.

back on topic

how long do we give both of them before we start looking elsewhere ?
this season ? next season ?
or are we convinced that one of the them will flourish given time and support ? (we are after all at the top end of the table, so not all is bad)

Out of the 3 of them I think Thornley has the most potential to fill the position long term. Gelling should be given some time in the 2nd row from the bench. He runs really hard and makes ground but is prone to handling errors. Thornley has defensive lapses but good hands and in general I've been ok with his progress this season. Hughes is a cracking 2nd row who is capable of filling in at centre when the need arises but I much prefer him in the pack.

Yeah it's more the average fan in the stands to be fair

No matter which position Gelling played, he would still be the team scapegoat for some supporters.

As MattyB has shown, there always been one and many season's ago, it was a certain Keiron O'Loughlin, father of Sean who left the club, went to Widnes and won a Cup Winners medal against us 1984 and also gained International selection.

Gelling is like a TVR; looks good but breaks down very easily

He's played a grand total of 7 first team games at centre, can you name even a single player who was the full package after that amount of time? I've just checked out the stats, our other first team centre, Darrell Goulding, played 100 games from '05 - '11 before he finally nailed down what looks to be a permanent first team spot in 2012. Now some people say he should be playing for England. I'm not saying Gelling should get another 93 games, but I am saying he's showing plenty of promise, if he keeps up his current form I'd give him the 4 shirt next year, then we can reassess after he's had a full season in 2014, which is also when his contract is up

Gelling looks like the type of player that will score a few but give plenty away too,I'm not convinced yet that he is going to be our starting despite the fact that he definitely has the potential

I think Gelling looks very sound defensively, far more than Thornley. Gelling's issue is keeping hold of the ball. But on the otherhand he also looks far more threatening than Thornley. A strong runner, seems more confident finding his way to the line, helps out the forwards coming out of our own half. Hes the leading contender by some margin for that no 4 jersey, problem is he isnt from Wigan so he is the one being made the scapegoat when in reality, with some nurturing and developing the rawness in his game we could have a world beater on our hands.

Gelling seems to be more athletic than Thornley but Iain is a more reliable player.
In big games we can't afford to turn over the ball Gelling and Hughes are doing at present. We got away with it v HKR but we wouldn't against a top side.
Thornley is a more complete centre than either of the other two, safer as well, Pat scores more tries alongside Thornley too.