The Australian Rugby League Commission naming a Kangaroos merit team yesterday seemed to confirm the current trend of the position of centre having become an afterthought.
Selected at three and four were Dane Gagai and Jack Wighton – the latter being a fullback who has switched to five-eighth, while the former may want to be considered an out-and-out centre but his own club coach told him just last year, “I’ve told him I can’t play him in the centres and if he really wants to play in the centres, then he can go at the end of the season.”
This followed on from Origin, where the Blues had Wighton and fulltime fullback Clint Gutherson in the centres – and even Isaah Yeo, although that was an injury-enforced plan on the hop in Game 3 – while Queensland went with Gagai and back-rower Kurt Capewell, with Brenko Lee coming in for Game 3.
Thus we end up with what I’m calling ‘most of one centre’ in the Kangaroos merit team – I’m not saying he’s not a centre, just that Gagai isn’t not a winger either – in what is the only case of players being selected out of position across the entire 17.
Admittedly the team is picked based on merit, not to actually take on the Kiwis or Poms, but it’s still indicative of how the game is treating the position of centre at the moment.
It’s taken over from winger as the position that may be mistaken for being so easy that anyone can do it.
Anyone who’s ever chucked a Steeden around with mates at the park knows that the easiest place to hide is on the wing. But this is no longer the case in the NRL.
Jack Wighton was selected at centre. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Wingers need to be big and robust enough to take the tough carries out of their own end early in the set, yet skilful enough to score the freakiest of tries at the other end. It has become one of the hardest spots on the field to nail down and you can’t just stick anyone there.
But apparently we still need a spot on a team sheet where players who are too good not to be named can be accommodated. It’s just that now we name them at centre.
The really odd part about that line of thinking is that wingers seemingly haven’t twigged to it. Gagai considers himself a centre rather than a winger and was seemingly ready to leave Souths to prove it, while Nick Cotric has made the move from Canberra to Canterbury specifically because the Dogs promised him he could also make the move from wing to centre.
It’s the position wingers want to play. It’s the position my Dad told me I should want to play when I started playing footy as a nine-year-old. It’s the position Reg Gasnier played!
How has it become regarded as a square hole to be filled with round pegs?
Of course, this is a debate in sport the world over – whether the art of selection is about putting players in their specific positions, or whether it’s better to just pick the best players available and make it work.
I can see both sides of the argument, as I suspect most of us can – you need only look at this year’s Origin series.
Capewell was an absolute revelation at centre for Queensland, particularly in Game 1. As a result, in the weeks following the Maroons’ win, Wayne Bennett has once again reclaimed his throne as the greatest coach in rugby league history.
Meanwhile, with Wighton and Gutherson picked out of position at centre for the Blues, people are wondering whether Brad Fittler just got lucky with the two previous series wins he’d managed.
Where’s the respect for the position of centre, Freddy? Didn’t you make your name as one? Why wouldn’t you go with specialists?
Perhaps the answer to those questions can be found in the make-up for Fittler’s teams in 2019. NSW lost Game 1 with a centre pairing of Latrell Mitchell and Josh Morris – two of the finest specialist centres in the game at the time – so for Game 2, Fittler switched them out for two fullbacks in Wighton and Tom Trbojevic, and took out the series 2-1.
Obviously a lot went into winning – and losing – these series but the issue of who played at centre has been a huge part of the narrative for the last two years.
And with young centres the calibre of Stephen Crichton, Kotoni Staggs, Bradman Best, Moses Suli and Zac Lomax – to say nothing of Joey Manu, who is the best in the world at the position, he just happens to be a Kiwi – all in the early stages of their careers, maybe specialists will be back in vogue for the coming decade.
But at the moment, centres are getting treated like the poor man’s winger. Who’d have thought we’d ever see the day!
Jiks Kalas
Roar Rookie
Should Justin Olam born or raised in Aussie, what are your thoughts? He would be a furious Centre in either NSW/QLD sides.
criag
Roar Rookie
Maybe they are under-appreciated because they are paid less. And maybe they are paid less because they've been stuck on either side of the field. You know there is something not quite right when someone feels that being the world's best centre isn't good enough for them. A centre can be as dominant and entertaining as any other position in the team when it matters, and if they started playing them together like they should be, who knows how much more often that could happen. Putting scrums back to 10 metres in and getting rid of the centre-field choice could also help with that. I remember the days of great centre combinations, too. You couldn't beat Brass & Harris for me back in the Easts super team of the mid-70s. Brass with his incredible hands, Harris with his pace and power.
criag
Roar Rookie
I'm unbiased :) .....Brass & Harris.
Big Mig
Roar Rookie
Good points, but Gagai for Souths in 2020 season, was consistently one of the best players on the field. His defence, kick chase and attacking game was to be applauded. In Origin, enough said, pure genius.
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
Reg Gasnier played all but one year under the old unlimited tackle rules when backline play was based on winning scrums and using your strike weapons in the centre. Reg played left centre in attack and outside centre in defence. Graeme Langlands, a great fullback, played in the centre to make way for other fullbacks like Les Johns. Fullback has to be a good tackler whereas Gasnier was there for his attack.
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
Hi Joe, You don't mind making a bold prediction: "Capewell was an absolute revelation at centre for Queensland" "Wayne Bennett has once again reclaimed his throne as the greatest coach in rugby league history" I would debate both of those statements, at the very least you should have included the word "arguably". Just saying.
Matt
Guest
King and Inglis?
Matt
Guest
It's odd because at the moment, Justin Olam is probably just about my favourite player to watch - a specialist centre.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Good question Joe and good article. When I grew up with the game, centre was a gun position where most of the creative things happened. Usually filled by the best players. Rogers, Kenny, Cronin, Zip Zip, O'Conner, Meninga, Miles, Lyon, Inglis, Gasnier, Cooper, Johnstone, Renouf, Johns. 5/8s would get the ball to the centre with room and the crowd stood. Now when you can interchange with second row, the mystique of the position has died...
souvalis
Roar Rookie
The good ones make themselves appreciated. Zac Lomax signed a $3 million contract last year. S. Crichtons manager is asking for $ 2.7 mill over 3 years. Staggs could get that..and these players touch the ball and run the meters at a cozy 50 % lower rate than fullbacks. Kelly and to a lesser extent B. Best aren’t far away either ability wise. They’re going all right.
Big Daddy
Guest
It's going back a long way but the pairing of Harry Wells and Reg Gasnier is probably the best centres either from years ago or modern days.
matth
Roar Guru
That’s right the days of a Cronin and Rogers are long gone
Succhi
Roar Rookie
I think the centre position has lost it’s “specialty.” I think the last specialty centre I saw was Mark Gasnier. Renouf, Meninga, Cronin, Coyne, ET - I dunno, I just don’t think the current position reflects the art.
Ja ja klazo
Guest
Robbo had Manu coming to the left a few times through the year but I think that was more a reaction to get him more involved as Flanagan doesnt run the ball or engage the line.
Ja ja klazo
Guest
Latrell and Joey Manu
Col in Paradise
Roar Rookie
Yeh and Quuensland backline in the 90s against that line up wasnt to shabby...and had pretty good centers.. 1. Belcher 2. Carne 3. Meninga 4.Renouf 5.Hancock 6.K Walter's 7.Langer... It's a combination of lack of depth and talent now and current tactics and plays...
R N
Roar Rookie
Yep... I don't call it a two on one anymore jimmmy. I call it a, "how are they going to screw it up." Thats how regularly a simple draw and pass results in a horrific pass due to subpar skill or terrible support play! A pass in front to the chest of a player in a better position is an underappreciated basic skill. If Kenny Bromwich and Whitehead had a bit more pace they would probably be 2 of the better centres running around!
Albo
Roar Rookie
He is not really underrated. He has played first grade for 12 seasons unchanged scoring 127 tries and 2,000 points . He is the Raiders captain and will break nearly every one of the Club's main records before he retires. But he is not the ideal modern day SOO type centre. He is the Ryan Girdler of today. Girdler who holds the NSW point scoring record in SOO, wouldn't get picked for NSW today, either.
Albo
Roar Rookie
I wasn't having a shot at Croker. He is one of the best exponents of scoring a try off a kick. Its just that the way the game is played these days , he gets very little early ball these days to run and create stuff. On that Raiders left edge , firstly you need to get the ball off Wighton who loves running it, and when he does let it go, it then has to get past Whitehead or the chiming in fullback CNK before it even gets to Croker. As for the winger, outside him, well he has just gone to the Dogs looking for some ball ! It is just the modern game. Centres get little early ball except for the obliged hit ups off their line.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
Come on - Any team that ever innovates and creates new plays that are actually successful are automatically branded as cheaters exploiting a loophole in the rules. This is the way.