Leuluai and the panther for me.special mention to brian "disco dancing" blacker and noel cleal

ok here are the 6 proposed nominees for the centre spots. as before if you feel a player should be in or out please speak up in the next couple of days

1. billy batten. signed from hunslet for a record fee of £600, batten went on to have a ten year career with hull split by the great war. a superstar of his day, he won the challenge cup in his first season and also won the league championship in 1920, as well as other near misses. in all he played 226 games scoring 89 tries. he also gained 25 rep caps turning down the chance of several more. he was one of the original inductees into the rugby league hall of fame.

2. joe oliver. oliver stared his FC career in 1928 signing from batley. signed as a fullback but switching to the centre position, he also enjoyed a ten year career scoring 162 tries and kicking 669 goals, skippering the side for many years. oliver won the championship in 1936. in 1933 the club's fans took to singing a gene autry song about a horse, and adapted it to fit in with joe's reliable kicking game. 82 years on and 'old faithful' is still going strong

3. richard (dick) gemmell. the late 60s were a lean time for hull and rugby league in general was in a bit of a dip in popularity. through this time gemmell was a star in an average hull team. a tall man he developed a looping pass out of the tackle to free his wingman, usually clive sullivan and was the architect of many of the welshman's tries. though club success was limited in this time, gemmell played a key part in hull's yorkshire cup win over featherstone, playing the whole game with a severe ankle injury, and in the absence of arthur keegan, skippering the side.

4. james leuluai. one third of the kiwi contingent who joined hull in 1981, leuluai went on to play his part in hull's glory years, winning every honour apart from the premiership. leuluai scored 84 tries for hull including spectacular ones in the 1983 challenge cup semi final and 1985 final. he also has a successful international career winning 29 test caps for new zealand

5. garry schofield. signed from amateur leeds club parkside as an 18 year old, schofield went on to become one of the greats of the modern era. he played for hull from 1983 to 1987 scoring 106 tries and kicking 196 goals, including 28 tries in the 1983/4 season. he also played 46 times for great britain scoring 30 tries. though his career at FC ended in controversy, his exploits on the pitch were what most remember him for.

6. ritchie barnett. though he played only 2 seasons for hull appearing in 38 games, barnett's influence on the backline was huge. the kiwi's natural attacking flair and the ability to put his wing into space played a major part in hull's successful 2003 campaign. in all he scored 23 tries and was responsible for many more in what were two prolific seasons for the club in terms of points scoring.

I can only comment from season 1965 onwards so I have to leave aside the greats Mssrs Batten, Gilbert and Oliver, I leave others to bang the drum for those undoubted greats.

So in my time, Dick Gemmell was a classy attacker and Very Good, as was Steve Evans who had real pace. However neither had the all round power game of Vaikona and Richie Barnett Snr who were both excellent players for Hull FC.

However, my 2 centres based on the last 50 years of watching the Cream have to be the 2 who for long periods played in the famous colours with great distinction, scoring many outrageously classy tries, giving world class performances at a time when we were tested every week by the very best. Both were also first names down on their respective international team sheets when competition was intense, both displayed prodigious talent from a young age and both maintained their high standards throughout their times at Hull FC, and never managed to achieve those same heights oncee they left for pasures new. They are of course Garry Schofield and James Leuluai 2 of the greatest centres of World Rugby never mind Hull FC.

With all due respect to Barnett and there is no doubt that the quality of his play is up there with the very best, 38 games is not a big total at all. Unless we are basing this vote on purely on a players skill set (in which case he is a definite contender) and not what their total contribution to the club has been then this low figure doesn't match up to Gilbert (from the old timers) and arguably Steve Evans (90 tries and international honours when at Hull) and, dare I say it ,Yeaman who without starting too much of a bun fight has gained international honours and features in the club all time try scorers. We all know the weaknesses in Yeaman's game and its been debated to the nth degree here but 10 years from now, believe me, he'll be seen as a much better player than he is now, that's what happens with most players.

God help us when we get to Sterling and Kearney

Brian Blacker, for his disco dancing abilities after each try alone

Thats why i thought he deserved a mention.wore the shirt with pride and very under rated.very rare his opposite number got better of him

to leave Gilbert out of the 6 is criminal IMO, as much as Jimmy Leuluai was talented in attack his all round game wasn't fantastic, not in comparison to this company. We only remember the good bits especially as it was our really only successful period in living memory (for the majority at least) and never the average matches were he went missing for large swathes of the game. I'd have rather had Viakona in front of him but he shouldn't be in front of Gilbert

I agree with comments regarding Bert Gilbert. Another deserving of more consideration is the Aussie international Jim Devereau who has been mentioned in previous posts. He partnered Billy Batten in one of the finest centre combinations the club has experienced and was the first player to score 100 tries for Hull.

There has been a lot of calls for leuluai though and with a limited choice of 6, I've gone with the original flow of the posts. My gut feeling is to include Gilbert at the expense of Barnett, but I feel dropping leuluai would be controversial. Tough choices!

Id say burnett is the best centre weve had since the mid 80's no doubt... id say youve got to have a " modern" centre with an old one, so as a 3, its burnett and schofield or leului