It will be Thornley. Hughes will cover centres / the back row. He is no where near ready to be our starting left centre

He's closer to being ready than Thornley from what I've seen. Gelling looks the best of the options but he seems to play better on the right rather than the left.

Goulding as top centre my god. Yes he can tackle and get the ball to his winger but thats about it. He has no strike. And also bad positional play in defence. If Cats would have been a bit smarter they should have attacked more down his side, when they did they found space and scored a try from it.

What I'd give for a inform Martin Gleeson and Staying George Carmont.

By all accounts Gelling has been ripping it up as a centre in the reserves. Plus Thornley and Hughes look promising. I know many see Hughes as a SR, fair enough, but considering the depth we have in that position I'd like to see him as a centre.
I think all 3 have more potential than Daz.

So even though teams have been attacking down that side frequently all year and have had little luck the fact that Catalans scored their try down that side with Goulding making a misread means that they'd have scored a bucketful if they had done it more?

As soon as he made the mistake I know someone would start using it against him as if it suddenly made him a defensive liability despite how strong that side has been this year, with a lot of that being down to his smart defending.

Leulaui held off making a tackle, Goulding jumped in and took the wrong option. It's a remarkable common mistake for centres and wingers to make but it hasn't happened that often this year.

I mean you jump on a mistake by Goulding and suggest a weakness in the defence even though the evidence during the whole of this year suggests the opposite. I don't think I've ever seen you mention the mistakes that Carmont makes in defence. Why not? He's made quite a few of them this year. Why was Carmont not criticised heavily for some terrible defending in the home defeat against Bradford? Why was he not criticised for the poor one on one tackle on Watkins that led to a try against Leeds in the Challenge Cup semi final?

It's just not consistent criticism.

At the end of the day, nobody is gonna be a Carmont. He's gonna leave a ridiculous hole in that edge and I'm worried we are gonna be a hell of a lot less effective next season on that side

Goulding, Thornley, Gelling and Hughes not a bad situation to be in.

Look, I'm entitled to my opinion. I'm not just going off that one game, it's my opinion from watching Wigan this season. Stop jumping on me with all this non-sense for having an opinion.

Am I not entitled to argue against anything you write? Might as well let me know so that I don't make the same mistake again.

Goulding = latest Wigan scapegoat.

Just a thought Mods, but maybe we could have a scapegoat thread as a sticky?

an opinion doesnt necessarily have to be correct. hence the argument.

Unfortunately, opinions are like ärseholes - Everybody has one and most of them stink.

Watching the 20's today Gelling is ahead of Thornley in terms of being ready for the first team.

He was big, strong and athletic and controlled the ball well in difficult conditions. Thornley is a beast of a lad but he made a couple of errors.

Bit harsh, he was being touted as the form centre in SL earlier in the year. He's cooled a bit recently (imo due to the pack losing complete dominance in all matches), but he's still up there.



They are some rare traits in centres now, lets be honest. Most centres in SL have abysmal defence, positionally and in contact. Just look at the likes of Turner, Welham etc they are woeful. Goulding is so, so safe. As to putting his winger away, think about how few centres are actually that good at it anymore. Lyon is easily the best centre in the the NRL. All he does is make the winger outside him look awesome, and that should be Goulding's aspiration too. The likes of Inglis, Hodges, Jennings, Morris etc are freakish athletes, but they don't glorify their wingers like Lyon. Strike isn't everything.




The amount of great reads Goulding has made this year, I seriously cannot believe you're saying this. He's been better in defence than Carmont this year (not attack though) imo.




Imo, and probably a fair few would disagree with this part, but 2012 Goulding has been better than 2010 Gleeson. Though I agree Carmont is way in front of both.




Hughes should be in the back row. Gelling vs Thornley will be interesting, could well be that they both end up on the left in a few years time once Pat is gone (I shudder at the thought).

Agree Re Gouding v Gleeson 2010 form.

Goulding's contribution to the team through the regular season has been far better than Gleeson's contribution where although solid in defence he contributed very little in attack.

I think people's memories RE. gleeson are clouded by his great GF game and his earlier form when playing for saints.