Rugby league fans of a certain vintage well remember the scything pace of Steve Renouf, and the juggernaut rampages of Mal Meninga.
Those of an older vintage can recall the dazzling grace of Reg Gasnier. There might even be a few left who saw the great Dave Brown shattering records in the 1930s, and though it’s too much to expect that any current NRL watcher was around to witness the exploits of Dally Messenger, we all know his name.
These are men who wrote themselves into the annals of league legend, and they all have one thing in common. As do, to take a small sample, Chris Close, Mick Cronin, Steve Ella, Michael O’Connor, Harry Wells, Andrew Ettingshausen, Herman Peters, Tom Gorman and perhaps the greatest of them all: Michael Pobjie.
Yes, they were all centres.
There was a time when centres took that part of the stage most aptly named. The great centres combined speed, power, footwork and ball skills to be the most potent weapons in their sides. The rest of the team strived as one to unleash their devastating attacks. They slashed through defences, crunched opponents in tackles, and scored as many tries as they delivered to their grateful wingers – who were often scintillating runners in their own right.
That time is not this time. This time is the time when Australia announces its World Cup squad, and includes a backline contingent containing just one centre. Just the one player who features regularly in a number three or four for his club, in a 24-man squad.
To compensate, however, there are five fullbacks. There were six, until Darius Boyd pulled out and was replaced by Josh Mansour. That was six specialist fullbacks, out of eleven backs total in the squad. Plus Cameron Munster, who would probably still be a fullback if he didn’t happen to play for the Storm.
(AAP Image/David Mariuz)
Mansour, incidentally, is the only specialist winger in a squad which wouldn’t contain any if Boyd had been fit. But the wing has always been the position filled by the overflow of stars inside them – that’s why most of O’Connor and Ettingshausen’s rep careers and, indeed, Boyd’s – were spent on the wing. The decline of the specialist centre – that’s a newer development.
The writing was on the wall for centres hoping to play for Australia during State of Origin this year. After Justin O’Neill’s disappointing showing in Game 1, three out of four centres in the remaining two encounters weren’t playing the position on the weekends.
The Blues went the whole series with non-centres in the centres. The Maroons placed fullback Darius Boyd alongside Will Chambers in Game 2, and then pushed Michael Morgan wide for the third.
Chambers was the only centre in the NRL deemed good enough to fill the role in Origin, and now he’s the only centre in the NRL good enough to play centre for Australia. Fullback Josh Dugan, he’s good enough. One might assume that fullback Dane Gagai or fullback Tom Trbojevic or fullback Valentine Holmes might slot in there at some point. Maybe even five-eighth Munster will have a go, or halfback Morgan can go back to the position he was apparently better at than all but one Queensland centre this year.
Whence comes this fall in the standing of the centre, all the more poignant for the fact the Cup selections were made by Meninga, perhaps the greatest centre of them all?
(AAP Image/Paul Miller)
Part of it might be the modern partition of the field. Nowadays everyone has to be a right-sider or a left-sider. Centres are no longer the middle section of a field-wide backline structure, but occupants of a narrow channel on the edges. They’re expected to stay in their place and run their lines and don’t interfere with the work being done by the important parts of the team.
Which is the other thing: the modern rugby league team is built around what has come to be called the spine: hooker, halfback, five-eighth and fullback. These four are the positions where attacks start and from where the team is directed. What this means is that if a club unearths a special talent, they rarely want to waste him in the straitjacket of the centres: you want your best players in the spine.
This means the best players of the NRL all play in the spine. Which means when you’re picking an Australian team, there are so many great spine players that you want to fit them all in. Which means, in practice, a backline full of fullbacks.
What it also means – what it must mean – is that centre is now considered the easiest of all positions to play. When Johnathan Thurston went down injured, the Queensland selectors never thought Will Chambers could maybe fill in. But when Boyd – who was only there because O’Neill let the side down – got hurt, it was fine to stick Morgan in his place, because while the halves are the province of specialists, when it comes to the centres, anyone can do it.
No longer do you pick the best centre for the job, you just find the best player who isn’t already busy in the spine, and plug him in to the right side or the left side.
(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
And so, while Chambers is apparently just good enough to warrant selection, the likes of O’Neill, BJ Leilua, Jarrod Croker, James Roberts, Dylan Walker, Tyrone Peachey, Michael Jennings, Jack Bird and Latrell Mitchell watch from the sidelines or take up with a Tier-two nation, knowing that as good as they might be, they’re not quite up to the standard of a fullback who doesn’t care where he plays.
Which maybe – probably – doesn’t really matter. That centre is no longer so much a playing position as a hole to be plugged doesn’t necessarily detract any from the game.
But a moment’s silence, please, for the demise of what was once the most thrilling position on the field, the place where the creativity of the halves linked with the finishing dash of the wings, and stadiums were set on fire by the game’s supreme athletes. And now, let us look to the future, and the beckoning brave new world of all-fullback backlines.
Nat
Roar Guru
Agreed. I admit, due to no pay TV at home, I rarely get to follow the NYC to see the juniors and their respective positions compared to where they make their way into the top team. Mainly those in the Q-Cup. Boyd was schoolboys FB but with Lockyer and K Hunt at the Broncos, he had to bide his time. Further, maturity and form allows them to play in most positions well (Dugan, Boyd). While Hayne had a shocker in SoO this year, he was my Player of Series in 2013 in the Aust team-out of position. Aust is very fortunate we can offer an abundance of players to fill roles but (as an ex 9,6,3 myself) I love to watch dominant centers ply their trade.
Greg Ambrose
Guest
Wasn't picking players out of position the alleged downfall of NSW in Origin? But wait ..... Mal and his selectors do the same thing with the national team. Comes back to the real issue, NSW can't pick Smith ,Cronk. Slater and co and that is why they have lost for a decade.
Riggs
Guest
Roberts, Croker, Mitchell, Jennings... all far superior to Dugan
Riggs
Guest
Dugan plays centre... but he sucks at it. So slow
Gary Harvey
Guest
It used to be all about the centres. 1994 Green Machine Grand Final centre pairing was Mal Meninga and Ruben Wiki. Perhaps the greatest Kangaroo and Kiwi of all times.
Womblat
Guest
Agreed, all greats of the game, particularly Rogers and Miles. Throw in a couple of freak Pommy talents like Ellery Hanley, Garry Schofield and Billy Boston, plus awesome Kiwis like Nigel Vagana, Kevin Iro, Dean Bell and Clinton Toopi, and there's some amazing talent in our past. It is a sad thought we'll never see the likes of those blokes again with the game going the way it is.
LMM
Guest
The game goes in cycles. While the current game plan is phasing out centres, in a couple of years a coach will devise a game plan to get early direct ball to some speedy centres and look like a genius. As a Penrith fan it drove me nuts this year. We had Tyrone Peachey and Waqa Blake standing around doing nothing in attack when they could be incredibly damaging with early ball. The only time they saw the ball was on an early hitup or on yet another block play where they have no room to take their opposite on one on one.
Mark
Guest
I would have had James Roberts over Dugan. Don't know what the obsession is with Dugan at centre. Even Dugan said he was surprised that he was picked.
Adz Sportz
Roar Guru
A case of pick the best 24 Australian players in the NRL (regardless of positions) then figure out how to put a 17-man team together?
Dan
Guest
Hear hear! Matt Gidley was a favorite center of mine. To watch him release Darren Albert was exhilarating because we all knew it was coming.
Troy
Guest
The death of the modern centre can be traced straight back to the great centres like renouf maninga and ettinghausen. They used to float to either side of the field but teams like the broncos and knights and raiders in the 90s would force a turnover or collect a kick return and because the opposition had run 2 centres a wing and fullback down the side of the field they were kicking to or dropped the ball with everyone on one side of the field the likes of langer or johns or Stuart would quickly shift the ball to a Mullins or renouf or Albert who were being marked by a sironen or Clyde and the counter attack would devistate the opposition. Think renouf try in the 92 grand final a kick to the corner lead to a quick spread where walford and maybe coyne are marking langer, Walters, renouf and Hancock. 10seconds later Brisbane have definitely won their maiden title. So in order to counter this they changed it so it was left and right sides so no matter what you always had a defence line of wing, centre, half, backrow, prop marking up on a similar set up. Because the defensive line was always set counter attack football became restricted and is now largely a once in a long while thing. Then because they had such structured defence lines they had to create plays create confusion and space so the block play became a massive thing, which made the centres line runners not footballers with speed and space.
matth
Guest
You need to look no further than the great Graeme Langlands for a fullback who played centre in rep sides.
matth
Guest
How could you write that list of great centres and leave out Steve Rogers and Gene Miles? How about Tony Currie, Peter Jackson, Chris Johns, Matt Gidley, Jamie Lyon, Andrew Farrer, Chris Mortimer? Shame on you! As an aside I would have loved to see someone try big Dave Taylor as a centre earlier in his career. His size, pace and love for popping a pass would have made him an absolute nightmare.
zim
Guest
"play there for sharks" - potentially.
ja ja klazo
Guest
Mark Gasnier and Greg Inglis went alright.
Andrew
Guest
I think there is a fair bit of narrow sitedness with this hole "the centre is dead" theory. Obviously the position has changed over time, but at club level guys playing centre are not jumping around. They play centre, they pretty much stick to centre moving if injury or other circumstance dictates but that is hardly new. At rep level - players play out of position. Again. Hardly a newsflash. Ettingshausen 27 Origin games - 6 in the centres where he played almost all of his 328 club games. Brett Kenny - best five eight of the 80's (better than Lewis, Lewis was just louder), played a tonne of his rep career in the centres. Even Dally Messenger played a couple of games on the wing for Australia in 1908. In that year Australia played two tests in a row where they used 4 different centres - none of whom were named Messenger (despite him being captain). And to add to TB's point - Gagai, 134 NRL games, since his first six games as a winger he has played wing twice, and fullback 21 times. He is considered a centre. Go back and look through recent history and the greatest halfback ever played hooker in Origin, the greatest lock of the 90's, Clyde played plenty of second row at club level. Good players can play different positions - a) because they are the best at the sport, and b) because their careers didn't start in their first NRL games, they have played those different positions throughout their junior development. At rep level, players play out of position in order to get the best players in the squad. It has been the case since the first rep sides in 1908 and will be until the last match is ever played.
Bonza
Guest
Agree completely. Jennings is still a class act, Roberts very dangerous and Walker is a true centre. Explosive, backs himself and sets up his winger. Qld must breathe with relief when we wheel out that tired old Duges/whoever in the centres. Sigh.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Guest
Interesting article. I'm not sure that the cupboard is completely bare for centres. Personally I hated the way the NSW selectors slotted Dugan and Hayne out of position into the centres just to get them into the team. They had a few options they could have used. BJ Leilua won the centre of the year in 2016 and gave Jordan Rapana great service to his right. Unfortunately BJ went off the boil at times during this year and let his emotions get the better of him at times. Jarod Croker has been a cosistent performer but doesn't get the recognition that he probably deserves. Roberts on his day is brilliant but he's more of a finisher than a creator of tries. This one is a bit out of left field but I really rate Brenko Lee and his ability to put away his winger at the Bulldogs. And I rate Dylan Walker from Manly as a centre. Hopefully a couple of these blokes will get an opportunity for the Blues next year.
The Barry
Roar Guru
The more I think about it the more I think this is a storm in a teacup. There’s plenty of good specialist centres in the NRL and the best teams use them effectively. There’s been some outrageously exaggerated comments here. The author referred to “fullback Gagai” who would have played 10 times the amount of football as a winger or centre as he has at fullback and has been selected in the Australian squad as a centre / winger not as a fullback. Ditto “fullback Holmes” who has played two and a bit seasons as a very effective winger and one as a serviceable fullback. He’s been picked for Australia pretty much exclusively as a winger who will be well down the pecking order as a fullback. Even “fullback Trbojevic” who no doubt will be a specialist fullback for the rest of his career would have to date played a similar amount of fullback to wing/centre. I reckon there are just as many players around who started as wingers or centres and switched to fullback permanently or temporarily as there are the other way around: Inglis, Boyd, Kahu, B Morris, Hopoate, Wighton, Holmes, Trbojevic, Gordon, Hayne, RTS, Elliott, French, Gutherson, Will Smith, Cody Walker and even Billy Slater all started as centres or wingers. Very few players (none?) play one positions all the way through juniors. I literally played every position on the park bar halfback between the ages of 7-27. We perceive them as specialist fullbacks or centres or whatever because that’s where we first see them or think that’s where they’re best suited. By the way I assume you meant “tackles” broken not “ankles” haha – took me a while to work out !
Box
Guest
Renouf played a lot of his footy as a left centre. Mal towards the latter part of his career played at right centre. I think the use of the block play has contributed to centre's not being as enterprising as they used to. Renouf used to get a lot of ball early from Walters when he was playing, giving him time and space to show his skills. have look at how Chambers plays and you see he gets the ball early allowing him to either take the line on or position his winger. Roberts at the Broncos plays his best when he gets early ball. When they do the block play he is cramped for room and doesn't look as dynamic as the defense is up on him. He played his best football at the Titans where Sezer with his left to right pass hitting him early and giving him space.