Gelling is like a TVR; looks good but breaks down very easily

He's played a grand total of 7 first team games at centre, can you name even a single player who was the full package after that amount of time? I've just checked out the stats, our other first team centre, Darrell Goulding, played 100 games from '05 - '11 before he finally nailed down what looks to be a permanent first team spot in 2012. Now some people say he should be playing for England. I'm not saying Gelling should get another 93 games, but I am saying he's showing plenty of promise, if he keeps up his current form I'd give him the 4 shirt next year, then we can reassess after he's had a full season in 2014, which is also when his contract is up

Gelling looks like the type of player that will score a few but give plenty away too,I'm not convinced yet that he is going to be our starting despite the fact that he definitely has the potential

I think Gelling looks very sound defensively, far more than Thornley. Gelling's issue is keeping hold of the ball. But on the otherhand he also looks far more threatening than Thornley. A strong runner, seems more confident finding his way to the line, helps out the forwards coming out of our own half. Hes the leading contender by some margin for that no 4 jersey, problem is he isnt from Wigan so he is the one being made the scapegoat when in reality, with some nurturing and developing the rawness in his game we could have a world beater on our hands.

Gelling seems to be more athletic than Thornley but Iain is a more reliable player.
In big games we can't afford to turn over the ball Gelling and Hughes are doing at present. We got away with it v HKR but we wouldn't against a top side.
Thornley is a more complete centre than either of the other two, safer as well, Pat scores more tries alongside Thornley too.

Surely it is a good thing to have the two or even the three centre's playing for the two postion's.

We have competition it in the other positions.

I am sorry but that is nonsense. I have seen some Wigan lads get absolutely slated on these message boards, more so than players from outside the town. Ironically some of the worst for this were some of the posters that now want special treatment for Gelling. The biggest scapegoat I have ever seen on these boards was Darrell Goulding and he was hounded by some on here when he was still a teenager and went through a few seasons of being blamed for just about everything by some.

Too true, and like I have said before, one of the worse examples was the treatment of Keiron O'Loughlin, father of Sean in the eighties.

Wigan lads do get given more support when they are starting out though. Gelling is 22, I don't believe for a second that a 22 year old straight out of the academy would be getting the same amount of stick after 23 games (16 of which he was out of position)

As I said no they do not. Goulding got far more stick as a teenager and 20 year old than Gelling has ever got. Wigan lads often have to put up with all kinds of rubbish and get stick from people not just for Rugby reasons but because they werent liked by people from school, junior rugby, jealousy etc. I think that imports often get a lot more slack and the old they are being made a scapegoat because they are an import line is just an excuse trotted out in an attempt to defend them and give them more time.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that, Daz never got this kind of abuse from the stands as far as I recall. Breaking news by the way, Gelling's contract has been extended another year, source - Bilko

Thornley is 21 and from Wigan and he gets stick

Never heard Thornley get anywhere near the amount of stick that Gelling has recieved in his time here. He doesn't make the same amount of handling errors though.

He gets stick though, Ive just looked at the stats comparing the 2 and Gelling isnt even worth considering over him. Plus Thornley seems to get Richards away more from what ive seen.

Gelling & Thornley are completely different players. Thornley is an out and out three quarter. He's a natural centre and I like him. Yes he has defensive lapses and if he works on that he can develop into a cracker. Gelling seems to get praise on here for the metres he makes in a game. That's why I think he'd be better suited to 2nd row. His handling at times is very poor but he's a real handful when he takes the ball in. I prefer Thornley out of the 2.

Thornley would be my pick for tonight and the cup final tbh. I thought he was having a terrific season up until a few iffy displays in defence around a month back. These things happen and a time out of the first team has hopefully given him a wake up call. I say all that I expect it to be Gellings place to lose tonight and we'll see how he goes. I like him also but he needs to work on his ball retention. There's no doubt he's a handful for defences but he lacks concentration sometimes.

Both have potential but need to kick on.

I think Gelling has shown signs he could be a really good player for us. He seems to have better footwork than Thornley and more of an eye for a half break. I think a lack of concentration and silly knock ons are his main problem. Don't forget he is playing on with quite a serious shoulder injury though which requires surgery. He played through this in order to win himself a new contract.

Thornley was played too long, he was our last ever present after 17 games.
His back three games were a bit off and he looked jaded.
He had an impossible job replacing George Carmont and for a lad who'd only played three SL games prior to this season I think he's done exceptionally well.
A better prospect than Gelling. AG though looks more althletic and faster although he has a greater capacity for errors. We can't keep dropping the ball against better sides like him and Hughes did v HKR.
Thornley would be my preference for left centre and I think He'll get the 4 shirt next season.

edit, I d up the calculations first time round and missed out a couple of stats. Here's the stats below, keep in mind 2 of Gellings games were out of position and he got injured early doors in one of those. Also there's no 'caught out of position' stat, which is my main issue with Thornley

Tries per game - Gelling 0.78 Thornley 0.6
Carries per game - Gelling 12 Thornley 9
Average gain per carry - Both 8 metres
Metres per game - Gelling 91 Thornley 79
Offloads per game - Gelling 1.3 Thornley 0.6
Tackle busts per game - Gelling 2.6 Thornley 1.7
Tackles per game - Gelling 8.3 Thornley 9.1
Missed tackles per game - Gelling 0.89 Thornley 0.6
Errors per game - Gelling 1.9 Thornley 0.5
Penalties per game - Gelling 0.6 Thornley 0.2
Clean Breaks - Gelling 0.4 Thornley 1
Assists - Gelling 0.1 Thornley 0.5

Just for balance Thornley has more than twice as many clean breaks per game and four times as many try assists per game. That's 9 try assists to 1 which certainly supports the other poster's view about putting Richards away.

Some pretty selective choosing of stats to try and prove your point there...

I'd also argue that averaging nearly 3 errors per game for a SL player is pretty unforgiveable.

Edit: I goosed up calculations first time round. Added in the stats I (didn't deliberately) leave out. To be fair though it's based on 9 games for Gelling, 2 of which were out of position on the wing where he's hardly likely to rack up assists or tackles

It's the errors for Gelling that are the big worry. An average of three per game is shoddy and its holding him back.

He's a raw talent and he'll continue to learn. For me, he has got more potential and room for improvement than Thornley. Still question marks over whether he'll reach that potential though, I hope he does.

Its pretty pathetic when people leave out stats, which are pretty crucial in showing how a centre plays, to deliberately try and paint a one sided picture. You know someone is struggling to advance the claims of a player if they can only do it by continually slating another.