If its between Charnley, Marsh & Pryce I would want Charnley all day long. Now is his time to play imo while Carmont is safely taking care of the other centre spot then at least next season Charnley will have almost a full seasons experience under his belt and we will only need to take care of replacing Carmont. I dont think Pryce will be as good as Charnley in the long term and im not sure if Marsh is ready yet.

Agreed.

The only downside to that, being Charnley will have to play the rest of this season on the opposite side of the field to which he's used to playing. Plus he'll then have to switch back in 2012 when he replaces Carmont. Who by the sounds of it is retiring at the end of this year.

Now personally I'm fine with having Carmont one side of the field and Charnley the other this year, even though I believe it's the wrong side for Josh? My worry is for 2012 when we'll also lose Carmont. Meaning we'll have a relativley inexperienced centre on one side of the field in Charnley, and possibly another inexperienced player in the other centre spot, in say Marsh. One is ok, but two is two many, in such a vital defensive position.

SKD has just signed a 4 yr extension with the Roosters I think

With Pat out, and Amos still not fully fit, we need Charnley on the wing.

Short-term, it looks like a choice between Marsh and Joel for centre.

Yeah along with Braith Anasta on a 2 year deal. Of that list I can only see Joel Reddy being a realistic target for Wigan as most are in for origin.

All this talk of replacing from within is fine, but you also need to add world class players from outside the organisation to both kick on the development of those within and frankly have a few world class players.

IL has promised this, with both centres likely to need replacing in 2012, this a perfect chance to make such a signing.

I would like to think we havent sacked Gleeson in the hope of using him as a bargaining chip with Hull FC to bring Tom Briscoe over along with cash providng he wants to come to a big club chasing trophies plus he has Yeaman in front of him at left centre at Hull for a while yet he could have the left centre spot next year when Carmont goes, he can cover rigth centre in the mean time. This would fit in with IL policy of bringing in top talent and splashing the cash if needs be. Briscoe one of the very few quality British backs out there.

The lord has spoken!

Totally agree 'if' Carmont moves on. I suppose we've got to try and judge when is the right time for Carmont to hang up the boots. He's been an awesome signing and is playing as well if not better then ever so far this season. We'll hopefully be able to make a more informed judgement at the back end of this season and if he's not looking in as good a shape have time to sign a top class replacment.

Names like Hodges, Lyon, Cooper etc are bound to crop up and i'd be fine with any of those on a short term deal if Carmont were to move on. I wouldn't be suprised to see us go for a lesser known NRL centre though with Maguires knowledge of that league.

One thing is for sure Gleesons expected departure has got this rumours thread buzzing again

Sure, but we're highly unlikely to get anyone for this season, so there's time to evaluate our own lads properly before deciding whether we need to go down the overseas route. Bear in mind both Marsh & Charnley have only played a handful of games at SL level, so it's probably fair to expect a big improvement over the rest of the season, for one or hopefully both of them. I suspect Madge will have a good look at Joel at centre as well, if only because we're so well off for second rowers.

I think you make a great point Geoff. We've the best part of three quarters of the season left to evaluate the players we already have, who are capable of playing centre. We might just discover that Charnley and Marsh are good enough to fill the centre spots for us next year. The truth of it is these lads have had less than 10 first team appearances each, and the only way we'll find out whethet they'll ever be good enough is by playing them. I'd love nothing more than to see are first choice centre's having come from our academy.

I wonder if Jamie Acton will get a game at some stage during the season? he looks a big powerful lad, if a little raw.
And will Ian Thornley be thinking "if only"

Breaking news here folks

Swap for tony clubb?