True everyone is entitled to their opinion, I guess I'm just fed up with the 'jump on them' mentality and argue the other person until their opinion is invalid.

Maybe different fans look for different traits in players, in thins case a centre. For me the position, like many others can be divided into 2, attack and defence. Within these headings you could have numerous qualities which you look for.

IMO, which is my opinion no more, Goulding lacks position play in def and offers little strike in attack. But sadly as someone pointed out quality centres aren't 10 a penny.

However I can see the potential in our own players, namely Thornley, Gelling and Hughes. All have the size and ability to become fantastic in attack and in defence, IMO surpassing Daz.

I said much the same on another thread that a couple of posters turned into a knocking Goulding thread. The Gleeson that we saw at Wigan was a long way past his best and he had some real shockers for us, such as the cup match against Leeds when his simple missed tackle from the scrum resulted in us being knocked out of the Challenge Cup. Some peoples view of him is certainly not consistent with what I saw at Wigan.

After seeing some of the defensive efforts from the likes of Watkins, Cudjoe and Atkins this season God only help Goulding if he was as poor as these in defense. If he had conceeded some of the tries that these had then some on here would be stringing him up.

Fair enough mate, I didn't mean to jump in like that, but your post was helpful for the construction of my own, you aren't the only one who doesn't see Goulding as a long term prospect. So you're not alone, and I wasn't jumping on you personally, I know where you're coming from, just disagree with the end point.



Sadly I have no access to video evidence (highlights never show good defensive play sadly) but I'm pretty confident Goulding is one of the best positional centres in SL, in attack and defence. As to strike, I have to agree that he does lack strike. He isn't an Atkins, Watkins, Cudjoe or so on (though as noted these guys can struggle positionally in defence), he won't rip up other teams on his own. His assists will not come from individual breaks and putting his winger away when all the work is done. But those guys are damn rare, as we agree. If we could get Watkins I'd be over the moon. But Goulding doesn't butcher the opportunities he gets like the others are liable to, he's very consistent when it comes to putting away his winger. He's one of the best technical 'scooters' around for making a consistent 10m despite his lack of physical presence. Maybe they aren't the traits we all look for in a centre, but they work well in our team where we have a class winger who still needs some defensive guidance outside him, who will finish what he is given. The partnership worried me but proved me wrong.



I just don't trust Hughes defending out wide. Maybe I'm scapegoating but I just can't get the instances earlier in the year out of my head, of Marsh mugging him for example. He struggles for lateral speed I think, the quick guys seem to get him. But again, players improve (something we all seem to forget from time to time) so it may be the case that our future backline is Charnley-Gelling-Hughes-Thornley or something, but I will be happy if it turns out that way because they will have had to displace one of the better centres in the league to be there.

I disagree about the try, it was his fault. Firstly he was out of position inside of Tommy not outside, meaning Daz and Goulding were too close together once Cats were hitting the dummy runners. Daz then made a call, from a wrong position to make a tackle on a player who had just offloaded the ball. From this Charnley was on his own with Tommy slightly inside of him causing a gap, which led to the try.
I wouldn't solely write off Daz for than one error regardless, even the best players make mistakes, they're all human.

I just think Wigan are missing a trick not having any strike on his edge, Daz reminds me slightly of David Stephenson, he's a solid player who IMO doesn't have that strike to step round his fellow centre, he's never a handful to defend. Wigan often stack up the dummy runners leading to Carmont's edge regardless as he has far more strike, I feel overtime Thornley, Hughes and Gelling will each has the size and speed to give defensive lines a torrid time and be as equally strong in defence.

Many see Hughes as a SR, which makes sense, although in the back row we already have depth with Hock, Hansen, Lockers, Faz, Tuson, Lloyd, Flower (can easily play at 13) I'd like to see Hughes as a big powerful centre.

Cheers for this, now I understand you're a genuine poster who likes to discuss RL etc.

And I agree Goulding does has his strengths, by no means am I calling him cr@p or anything like that. I just feel in time we will have better centres at the club, I also believe the centres could already be here in the likes of Hughes, Gelling and Thornley, is it also easy to forget that Marsh is still a Wigan centre (personally I would have liked to have seen him given an opportunity on the wing).
I don't hold my head in my hands when Daz plays, I just think in what is developing into a very strong team in the backs/three-quarter line he is one person who I think is lacking compared to the others.
Sam-probably the best player in SL
Josh-IMO actually underrated, someone I'd like to see in a position where he has his hands on the ball more, regardless he's a top try scorer.
Daz (Will explain)
Carmont-Excellent, one of the best if not the best centre in SL, causes so many problems in attack, beats his man, knows how to find his winger, can make something from nothing and is defensively sound.
Pat-Big strong quality winger, can kick from anywhere, excellent positional play in def and attack, excellent under the high ball in attack and def etc.

Daz is solid, but I believe lacks position play in def and attack when the ball is in fast movement piling down his wing. I often feel Wigan now where their best attacking edge is as often they play to Camont as that's were there is more of a threat.

I'm not Daz bashing by any means, I just think there's other options.

What's all this about Goulding again? Can't be bothered reading it all but I can't believe people would still be questioning him after the season he's had! He may not be the best centre in the league but he's proven he's one of them and he's been really consistent.

We couldn't have asked for anymore from him. If people want to know how good he's been ask Josh Charnley.

It's Scapegoat Central on here.

It won't be long before they start building a bonfire outside the DW so they can throw Goulding, Gelling etc on to it....

We'll have no team left

Or a coach, going off the thread we had last week about Wane and our attack.

Whenever I watch Goulding I can't help but be reminded of Connelly. He's a very good centre and rarely does much wrong.

IFL cops his fair share

Goulding is very good at what he does.
We don't need him to be a strike player as our attack isn't based upon individual brilliance. Mention has been made of Atkins, Watkins and Cudjoe. Good strike players but they can't defend, none of them!
They will never ever be as good defensively as Goulding because they can't read the game as well as Daz can.
Phil Gould came out with a blinder taking about Atkins. "He can tackle with the best and give as much as he gets but he can't defend. He's lost, doesn't know where he is". Atkins may have improved but his defence at times is awful, same goes for the other two.
As for our number 3 shirt I'm happy with Goulding.
Look at Saints though! Five or six years ago Jamie Lyon had their 3 shirt, then Matt Gidley followed by Shenton. Next year it will be Jordan Turner, that's not a decline, that's falling off a cliff!

It'd be interesting to see the "Teams for next year" threads from this off season, and the amount of people who were putting Gelling in at right centre over Goulding despite never seeing him play before. I think he's been excellent this year, solid defensively, scored plenty himself and created loads for Charnley. Who's to say Thornley or Gelling won't be next year's Goulding? Admittedly Carmont is a hard act to follow, but I really can't see us bringing in another centre. Hughes should stay in the back row IMO.

Go get Joel Moon