Who should be Manly’s centres in 2022

[Waz13]

Anybody that thinks our centres were the problem on Friday night ... or that having Koula, at this stage of his career, defending inside Saab ... is a

MOON BARKING, lip dribbling, slack jawed, cross eyed, cranyon eating window licking lunatic.

I agree! But I did pick Koula alongside Parker. That’s mainly because I’ve never been the biggest Harper fan and I think putting Koula in was a good opportunity for an injection of youth. I think we’ll see him at sone point starting for Harper.

 

[mickqld]

Koula and Walker or Tuipolutu.

 

[frank stokes]

It sucked watching Harper get monstered by Kikau but, when I think back to that game against the tits when Harper single-handedly shut down Fifita, I have to wonder if it would have been worse with the kid Koula there for 80min? Kikau may have broken him...

I am holding with Harper and Parker (who i reckon has been pretty bloody good for the last dozen games) for now...

 

[Chip and Chase]

Harper seemed to have a knack of making things happen last year in attack, but that was generally against the weaker teams that we were all over on the back of Tommy giving them nightmares. I wouldn't put either of Harper or Parker in the top half of centres in the league, so not sure you can win a premiership without some strikepower there.

Walker's time at centre has passed, the couple of times he filled in there last season were pretty uninspiring in my opinion. I don't think Warriors are signing him as a centre either which tells me his future is as utility off bench.

Not sure what the answer is. I can live with Parker being there for his generally OK defence and his willingness to run courage lines. When Schuster comes back that will give us strike on that edge. Harper ? well we could give someone else a go there, but who ? Koula too green. Tippytoes perhaps.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Koula and Tuipulotu will get some NRL game time this year, but aren't going to be a preferred starting centre in any big games.
Unless... some unfortunate injury rubs out one of the incumbents and one of those kids plays so well they have to be retained. Which happened last year with the back-rowers.
Agree Harper has a knack of making things happen, wouldn't surprise me if he continues to improve.

 

[mickqld]

Clint Gutherson , Brian Kelly, Jessie Ramien, Peta Hiku, Nico Hynes, Moses Suli oh sorry apparently Parker and Harper are better than all these guys.

 

[frank stokes]

Clint Gutherson , Brian Kelly, Jessie Ramien, Peta Hiku, Nico Hynes, Moses Suli oh sorry apparently Parker and Harper are better than all these guys.

Definitely been some interesting recruitment decisions in our wing / 3/4 area over recent years (not Suli, terrible defender)... but we had to save money somewhere and I guess this and hooker is it...

Still cant believe we let Api go...

 

[Brisbane Tragic]

I agree, but the difference is we have better centre options than we are using waiting in the wings. We don’t have better forwards.

We certainly have have better team selection and a better balance in the forwards. We have too many of the same type of forwards ie props and no tough as nails gap running/defensive workload types of forwards in the side. Hopefully Davey is that man.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Clint Gutherson , Brian Kelly, Jessie Ramien, Peta Hiku, Nico Hynes, Moses Suli oh sorry apparently Parker and Harper are better than all these guys.

Gutherson Ramien and Hiku were stuck behind Lyon and Matai (and Hiku also had Tom emerging as fullback)
Hynes was never a centre back then (still isn't)
Kelly was homesick and asked to go back to Qld
But yes, Suli was tried over and over and over again, and although he is more physically gifted I think Harper and Parker are better centres 🙂

 

[frank stokes]

Gutherson Ramien and Hiku were stuck behind Lyon and Matai (and Hiku also had Tom emerging as fullback)
Hynes was never a centre back then (still isn't)
Kelly was homesick and asked to go back to Qld
But yes, Suli was tried over and over and over again, and although he is more physically gifted I think Harper and Parker are better centres 🙂

Never knew that about Kelly SER8... and always thought it was a bad call letting him go...
Ramien was only NYC when he left and probably saw the writing on the wall as Manly had just signed a premiership winning centre prior to the start of that season (Walker after Souffs axed him)