Ended up at loose forward where he was more effective

TC ended up playing in the BR aswell.

Don't think it was the NRL when we signed Godden or Bell was it?

its a fairly logical progression as that yard of pace recedes but is replaced by a bit more strength

Do you see the connection?

I'd start the season with Ablett at centre up to and including the WCC (don't think Keinhorst is ready to be facing the Aussies), then after that start given Keinhorst some starts.

I don't see left centre as a priority at all. Unless we can sign someone significantly better tan Ablett why bother? Ablett is the best left centre in this competition.

He's a very creative centre. Look at the timing of his pass to Hall for his try. Superb centre play.

Yes, he's also a very good back rower and if he sees his future there then, fine, but only if we can find a better player than him for Left Centre. I'm not sure that players in in this competition and I doubt you can lure quality from the NRL these days.

I'd take Atkins (if he got a sensible hair cut) but that ain't going to happen. Used to find him a bit limited but seems to have added some more strings to his bow in the last year or two.

Unless we find real top quality from somewhere, I'd be happy to persuade Ablett to stay put. It isn't like playing at centre for a bit precludes you from playing back-row later is it? See Carroll, T; McKenna, C; Delaney, B et al for details.

Completely agree!

Yes - but the more he blows sunshine up our ar[size=100s[/sizees the more credibility he loses with regards to player recruitment.

He's recruited the players that have won six SL Championships since 2004. How much more credibility do you want?

I agree but with all his publicity about still been confident of recruiting a top class centre from the NRL, he is a hostage to fortune. That is unless he already has provisional agreement with a player/club which will be finaliised in the New Year? If GH fails to sign such a player there's a lot of egg on his face!

I'd like him to say "We don't need to buy in expensive Aussies because we're doing just fine without them" instead of feeding us some baloney about looking for world class players with absolutely no intention of spending a cent.

But there are certain idiots who need to hear such gubbins to part them with their cash.

Just let it wash over you, he's only doing his job and he's doing a fine one at that. Don't see the need to give GHs proclamations any thought whatsoever.

It's all completely irrelevant. Sells a few papers, sells a few season tickets. If he signs nobody, so what. He'll wipe the egg off his face with the super league trophy (that didn't really work did it).

If we can get the likes of Atkins, Morris, Lyon, Reed, Hodges, Lulia etc. then great, let's sign a new centre. Otherwise leave Ablett there....

I'd qualify this slightly in so far as he's far more effective close to the line than from distance. Hence he performs at his best when the forwards gain decent position. Which in a rather roundabout way supports your point: our greatest imperative is to create good attacking positions and the most likely way to achieve this is by ensuring we have the pack to do it. So for me, if we're going to sign anyone, a rampaging forward would be the ideal; that way we bring out the best in Ablett who is, as you say, as good as anyone under the right conditions.

It's an entertaining image though isn't it?

I just spent the last 5 mins visualising GH wiping his cheek with the trophy.

It's been a productive Monday.......

Ablett has played very well at , what he lacks is some creativity and pace, but he adds extra power and good defence. Given game time I see Keinhorst going above this level as he brings genuine cente r skills and from what we have seen of him good strength (busting and off loading to Hall) and strong defence from a youngster. Maybe a split time season with Ablett and Keinhorst sharing the role, but with a transition to getting Ablett back into the pack...left hand side Ablett, Keinhorst, Hall...that sounds very strong to me both in attack and on defence, improvement on defence on right side, then we have strong outside covergae. This also means I do prefer a tackling middle of the park hooker as opposed to one defending out wide

Atkins is still the limited player that he's always been. The difference now is that he is playing to his few strenths very well in a very good Wolves team. In fact his strenth is his strenth. If he had got more involved earlier on in the GF the result might have been different.

Disagree. His defence is hugely improved, even when alongside Riley who is defensively pretty weak. He also used to struggle to create enough opportunities for his winger (or whoever else is around) and I think that is also a much improved aspect to his game and one which sets him above the likes of Yeaman, Welham and Cudjoe in my view.

Cudjoe is far superior in relation to skills and creating for others.

I agree with you on the defence though. Atkins has improved that side of his game immensely, and for that reason added to his natural powerful game, he is rated one of the top centres.

I must have watched a different Ryan Atkins to everyone else then because from what I've seen for Warrington and for England Atkins' defence is still pretty woeful. I've just had a quick look at his stats and he missed 40+ tackles last year and his positioning at times is terible, the Exiles game is probably the best example of this. His offload game and his hands have improved out of sight since going to Warrington. I think he didn't have one try assist to his name in his last season at Wakey now at Warrington Riley scores a lot of tries thanks to Atkins.

I do agree that Cudjoe is a better player, he's a great athlete who runs good lines, and his defence has improved a fair bit his performance for England against Australia. He needs to learn how to use his footwork to create space for his winger, but he's improving season by season.

I've always rated Cudjoe from when I first saw him play full back at the Floodlite 9’s a few years ago. Defensively he’s not the best although this side of his game has vastly improved in the last year or so but going forward with ball in hand he’s far more creative than Atkins.