I thought start a thread:

Writing about Austin made me think of the best centres I have seen play for Fax
John Burnett ( though only at the end of his career) ,Tony Anderson , John Schuster and David Willicombe.
Schuster probably my favourite he could do it all.

Anyone have suggestions?

You have pretty much covered my time supporting fax. So it would be Schuster and Austin for me, and i would give a mention to Diao powell in 98. I thought for just that season he was a handful before he left as part of the Pinkney swap deal.

Fax haven't been blessed with many great centres over the years I've supported other than those already mentioned.

The centres when I first started spectating were Graham Garrod and Dave Cholmondeley ....... always a laugh at away games when the team announcer tried to pronounce his name!

Loved watching Cholmondeley and also had many a chuckle at away games as team was announced. He always gave everything and hard as nails.
If Garrod had just a little more pace he would have been an international.

I actually think Cholmondeley's name was simply pronounced "Chumley"!

Indeed it was.

I think it was at Hunslet when it was announced as "Colmundersleysley"

Haha yes. Always waited for the announcement to see what version they came up with. Also saw one of the funniest moments when we played away at Huyton. "Chumley" kicked into touch on a penalty, it went out of the ground, and some young scouse lad ran off down the road with the ball.......before he probably returned with his mates to chuck stones at our buses.

As for best Centre, has to be Schuster. Although shame we never saw him and Austin in same team.

They were the first centre pairing I remember watching - good defensively but can't remember either of them scoring a try even though I followed Fax home and away then. Even though he didn't actually play many games for us I can remember Greg Florimo having a few at centre and being absolutely devastating, albeit only over short distances!

As an outsider I remember so many class players at Fax. That championship and cup winning side in 85-87 was all about the team rather than individuals but it still had some great players. Eadie was at the veteran stage but he was still class. I remember going to the cup semi in 87 and seeing Grant Rix score a belting try. Chris Anderson and Gary Stephens were a great halfback pairing. Other players I admired (or feared) at Fax were the likes of John Pendlebury, Les Holliday, John Schuster, John Bentley, Michael Hagan, Greg Austin, Dave Watson and Paul Dixon. Glad to say we also saw a few of them turn out for Northern.

What happened with Dave watson at Fax. The story i was told was Fax knew he was going to fail a drugs test so they sold him to Bradford then boom he fails that test and Bradford have forked out for him and he is banned from playing. If that is wrong i would be interested to hear the true story if anyone knows.

The story I heard was that he tested positive for weed but claimed he'd smoked it passively at a jazz venue.

That's some excuse!

I think bullseye may be right about the passive smoking theory but I thought it was in a car with his mates. I also heard Fax's owner at the time Tony Gartland (no relation) wasn't happy at the antics of Watson, Warren Wilson and Greg Pierce.

It's not exactly a performance enhancing drug is it?

My memory seems to think he was banned while playing at Fax and it were Bradford that brought him back but its such a long time ago. I just remember him been such an amazing talent and a really good bloke off the field, had some good days/weekends with him and Greg Pierce, both great characters but opened my eyes to the realisation that rugby players were not squaeky clean.

Powell probably a name a lot of people would overlook but he was so good that season and a very big part of why we were able to finish 3rd. I think he just wanted somewhere to enjoy his rugby after all the stuff that had gone down in Aus and he became a formidable force for us in the centre.

Just to list a few more I have enjoyed over the years, I think Ian Wilkinson had at least 1 good season for us at Centre possibly after making the move from second row. A big unit with a nice change of pace. I know Warren Wilson has been mentioned and I think he had a few games there but who can forget his match winner over at Wakefield(That is unless you had left the ground, I know someone reading this who had done just that

) and also who can forget his tackle on Les Quirk up at Thrum Hall basically putting him in the wall. Im not sure Quirk played much after that.

Greame Hallas a frustrating player at times but another who at times was very good for us and was fun to watch. Peewee another who got mentioned previously and another who was in the rec drugs group but again on his day he had a lot of class about him able to cover multpile positions and that kick from the touchline you wouldn't have wanted anyone else taking it at that time. I mentioned Florimo on the other thread and from a technical stand point he was probably the best centre that we had although it was a one season thing because Wigan paid off his contract but I still rank Austin and Schuster as my top 2. On another point anyone remember Schuster's first game over at Hull? He missed a kick straight in front of the posts and had us all wondering what the hell we had signed. Little did we know.

As for others Donlan I'm really not sure how he didn't get more England honors I think he maybe got some lower rep game but never anything more. Not really had many that stand out in this division but Varks had a really good season for us at centre and bagged a good number of tries for us. I seem to remember him moving to a SL club after us? Thats a question for another day as I don't think we have had too many that have done that since we dropped down. Lee Patterson worth a mention as he had a bit of a run at centre and Dylan Nash who was nuts but a really good player to watch play and then the late Ben Heaton who you couldn't help not to like as he was giving 100% every single time on the pitch, I mean who in their right mind throws pretty much a dislocated shoulder in the way of Menzie Yere to try and stop him a yard or two from your own line. People were always going to like him. I also think we look back in a few seasons and realise what a good player we had in Greg Worthington, not your attacking centre like a lot of those mentioned but nobody got past him.

Ben Heaton was a coaches dream. 100% every game and very rarely made a mistake. I had forgotten about him. One of the best we have had in the post SL era. Just to think he came as a fullback!

I also liked Worthington , just short of pace but could put a winger away and a very strong defender.

If I remember rightly, it was a freezing day and Fax scored 2 very late tries to win it 19-14, one from Austin then Preston laid on the pass for Wilson to emphatically dive to score the try as he tried to get nearer the posts (which he didn't need to do!!!) and I thought he was gonna ground the ball beyond the in goal area!

I also remember Schuster's kicking being really naff when he first arrived, missing a couple of sitters at Thrum Hall, but he was known as "Radar Legs" at Newcastle Knights (not Thunder!) so he was always going to come good, so god knows why he was so bad at first. Probably the best kicker to pull on a Fax shirt.