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View Poll Results: Best Centres of the Decade?

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  • Matt Gidley

    45 61.64%
  • Michael Shenton

    5 6.85%
  • Jordn Turner

    3 4.11%
  • Josh Jones

    2 2.74%
  • Mark Percival

    68 93.15%
  • Kevin Naiqama

    19 26.03%
Multiple Choice Poll.
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Thread: Redvee Team of the Decade: Centres

  1. #1
    In The North Stand With All The Old Folk Blobbynator's Avatar
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    Default Redvee Team of the Decade: Centres

    The next category to choose from is the Centre positions, which again requires two votes from the six options I have selected for you.

    A fairly strong area over the last decade continuing our tradition of having some good Centres, although fair to say it doesn't compare to the decade before.

    If you could please consider their performances from 2010 onwards.

    The six options are:

    - Matt Gidley (One season 2010 - 2011)
    - Michel Shenton (Two seasons 2011 - 2013)
    - Jordan Turner (Four seasons 2013 - 2017)
    - Josh Jones (Four seasons 2012 - 2016)
    - Mark Percival (Seven seasons 2013 - )
    - Kevin Naiqama (One season 2019 - )

    The poll is open for 7 days.
    Last edited by Blobbynator; 28th November 2019 at 09:19.
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    I think these polls are showing how poor a decade we've had in comparison to the previous one. The previous two decades would probably have been a who's who of the top 20 players in our history.

    This category is particularly tough. Percival is an auto-pick, but then it's a case of giving the other vote to Gidley or Naiqama for one high quality season or rewarding Turner or Jones for four years of toil. I went for Turner.

  3. #3
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    I think this is a really tough one, we have 2 excellent centres who have only played one season in the decade each, ordinarily i would discount them as i think having to play more than a season has to be a qualifier. However, other than Percival i was never much of a fan of the other options, Shenton was solid but nothing special, Jones was a second row playing at centre, and was allowed to move on swiftly enough knowing we had 2 better centres, Turner just never seemed to pass outside of him, starving his winger and Morgan was average. I went with Percy, been excellent over a long period of time, but struggled to choose between Gidley and Naiqama, i vent with Kev as he was part of a league winning side.

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    Fairly strong?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Angry Dave View Post
    Fairly strong?
    Its at best 2 from 4, and 2 of those 4 only played a year each in the decade, i wouldnt say it was fairly strong.

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    A pity Shenton didn't work out for us - good for Cas both before & after his stint here. He was just starting to fulfil his promise IMO by the end of the 2011 season, and was playing really well in the GF that year and we were beating those jammy Leeds ba*tards before injury forced him and Wello off, which changed the game.

    I was disappointed with Gidley at first - well, we'd been utterly spoiled in that position before he signed and he seemed a bit lacking in explosive running. But he was a real winger's centre, and a canny runner himself.

    Turner was ruined by Brown & Cunningham. We all remember him leaving our players for dead playing for Hull, but he seemed to lose his speed soon after he joined us, and was shunted around before buggering off to Aus.

    Edit: my choices were Gidley and Percival
    Last edited by Webbo Again; 28th November 2019 at 15:18.

  7. #7
    Learning All The Songs SaintJon's Avatar
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    Shenton seemed a lot more comfortable at left center than at right. I think we just played him on the wrong side and didn't get the best out of him. You could also say it was his injury that cost us the GF. With him and Wellens off we couldn't recover.

  8. #8
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    Liked Shenton a lot, still do but he was in a poor Saints team that happened to play some pretty dull rugby, so I don’t think we ever saw the best of Shenton. I still think we’d have won that GF that he did his arm if he’d have stayed on.

    Easy one this, Percival and Gidley. Naiqama could be viewed as one of the best we’ve had for a long while but he needs to do it for another year or two.
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  9. #9
    Starting A Programme Collection Roger Moore's Avatar
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    Percival and Gidley. Percy is a stand out. I went for Gidley as the other. I think everyone expected too much from him due to the centres he had to follow, but was a very solid centre.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Roger Moore View Post
    Percival and Gidley. Percy is a stand out. I went for Gidley as the other. I think everyone expected too much from him due to the centres he had to follow, but was a very solid centre.
    Agreed. Percival is an auto pick. Gidley was a complete player and gets the nod for me ahead of Naiqama, who is more explosive but a little less dependable. Had Naiqama come a season or two earlier I would probably have had him in though.

  11. #11
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    I've gone for Lyon and Newlove

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    In The South Stand Tez the Saint's Avatar
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    I’ve just had a quick look at the stats because I was struggling with the right centre.

    Naquima 2019 - 20 tries in 31 games.
    Gidley 2010 - 8 tries in 27 games.

    Haven’t looked at the assists but based on that record and the fact that Naquima was involved in a Grand Final win, it just about sways it for me.

    Defensively Gidley was always outstanding but I thought Naquima got better as the year went on.

    Jordan Turner’s performance in the 2014 GF shouldn’t be forgotten though, he was brilliant that day but didn’t play centre. He was crucial to us towards the back end of that season.

    Naquima and Percival.
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  13. #13
    Learning All The Songs SaintJon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Blobbynator View Post
    The next category to choose from is the Centre positions, which again requires two votes from the six options I have selected for you.

    A fairly strong area over the last decade continuing our tradition of having some good Centres, although fair to say it doesn't compare to the decade before.

    If you could please consider their performances from 2010 onwards.

    The six options are:

    - Matt Gidley (One season 2010 - 2011)
    - Michel Shenton (Two seasons 2011 - 2013)
    - Jordan Turner (Four seasons 2013 - 2017)
    - Josh Jones (Four seasons 2012 - 2016)
    - Mark Percival (Seven seasons 2013 - )
    - Kevin Naiqama (One season 2019 - )

    The poll is open for 7 days.
    Just for fairness.... Where is Ryan Morgan?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tomsepho View Post
    Its at best 2 from 4, and 2 of those 4 only played a year each in the decade, i wouldnt say it was fairly strong.
    Jones isn't even a centre.

    (Yes I'm well aware he's played centre.)

  15. #15
    In The South Stand Sean Day's Avatar
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    I think Percival and Gidley. I have a feeling Naiqama will be top drawer for us this year. He started to show his class at the back end of last season but just too late to put him up against Gidley, who was top class and actually suffered a bit from following on from Lyon

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sean Day View Post
    Gidley, who was top class and actually suffered a bit from following on from Lyon

    I don't think he suffered. Everyone knew he was world class and we couldn't have asked for a better replacement.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SaintJon View Post
    I don't think he suffered. Everyone knew he was world class and we couldn't have asked for a better replacement.
    I agree, i dont think he suffered at all, he was a different type of centre to Lyon, both were world class but different players, Lyon would pop up with pieces of individual brilliance more often but Gidley’s game was far more rounded it may not have been as flash but it was just as good.

  18. #18
    In The North Stand With All The Old Folk Blobbynator's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SaintJon View Post
    Just for fairness.... Where is Ryan Morgan?
    It was between him and Josh Jones for the 6th spot to be honest. Jones for longevity and scored a couple of crucial tries for us (Wigan at home for example) whereas Morgan was pretty average really.

    Either way I doubt either will affect the overall winner in the end.
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  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by SaintJon View Post
    I don't think he suffered. Everyone knew he was world class and we couldn't have asked for a better replacement.
    He was quality,the amount of trys he put Ade in for. We where really spoiled the centres we had one after the other.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SaintJon View Post
    I don't think he suffered. Everyone knew he was world class and we couldn't have asked for a better replacement.
    I think people (me included!) were hoping he'd be that same sort of top tier player that Lyon was, but he was never going to be that. It took a few games for me to start to appreciate what he did actually bring.

    Lyon was, for me, one of the top 5 best players I've seen at Saints in 30-odd years. That was always going to be a hard act to follow.

  21. #21
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    I really like Shenton and I don’t think we ever got the best out of him. He was played on the wrong side. Much was made of Cas being without Gale last year but I think they really missed Shenton and his leadership as well.

    Percival is a no brainer but I found second choice difficult because I thought Gidley was really good for us. However, I’ve gone for Naiqama. It may have something to do with that early try against Wigan in the first game of the season!

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Webbo Again View Post
    I think people (me included!) were hoping he'd be that same sort of top tier player that Lyon was, but he was never going to be that. It took a few games for me to start to appreciate what he did actually bring.
    I don't know if you were there for the Leigh friendly but any worries fans had, I'm sure they were quickly erased after he did that flick pass. It's the first and only time that I've seen or heard a crowd gasp and appreciate a piece of skill in such a meaningless match.

  23. #23
    In The North Stand With All The Old Folk STIDDY's Avatar
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    I've gone for Percival and Naiqama based on dynamic strike power, Gidley was more of a wingers centre and could have scored more tries, it was unfortunate in his last season (2010) that he had gone past his prime and I think he started to get injury prone.

    The other centres were just missing that extra quality, Shenton was good in defence but never really got a good service from our backs, I thought Jones and Turner were fairly average in attack and were poor in defensive reads.

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    Went with percival and jones mainly didnt choose gidley because it was just the 1 season in last 10 years we had.

    Jones was solid in defence and hard to put down was gutted when he left

    Percival despite his lack of passing ability hes one of our most attacking threats in last 10 years

  25. #25
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    Shenton could have been excellent for us but played in a side that barely got the ball out wide and was also played on the wrong side. Gidley was excellent in his first couple of seasons but by the 2010 season he was well past it. I think the Jordan Turner we signed would have been fantastic in the current side or even the late noughties side but the style and coaching ruined him and he was bulked up to the point he ended up playing 13. Still 2nd choice for me behind Percival ahead of a bad bunch.
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