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Did anyone hear Offiah's comments during GMR commentary yesterday, he said how much he admired Joel at centre and how he would have loved to play outside him and reminded of his time playing outside the great Gene Miles?? I hate to say I told you so but when I said the same thing after the Saints Good Friday game I didn't get many agreeing on here.

Webby71 wrote:Did anyone hear Offiah's comments during GMR commentary yesterday, he said how much he admired Joel at centre and how he would have loved to play outside him and reminded of his time playing outside the great Gene Miles?? I hate to say I told you so but when I said the same thing after the Saints Good Friday game I didn't get many agreeing on here.

Yes Webby71 I did hear Martin make reference to Joel.This is such a specialised position that it will take him some time to adapt.Over time I feel confident that he will make this position his own.Though I do feel that this negates some of the barn storming runs we have been accustomed to seeing from him.People like George Carmont and Martin Gleeson are quite exceptional in this position. And whilst I was not a massive fan of Matin Gleesons life style I certainly do miss him.

Joel has the potential to be a Gene Miles centre simply based on physique but he is a million miles from being so and Offiah is doing a disservice to Miles. Miles was able to take two men tackles and keep his arms/hand free to pop passes/offload to his winger. His ability was aided by time spent playing basket ball as a teenager IIRC. He was the best centre I have ever seen at providing for a winger. Joel could learn to play like Miles, but his mindset/approach would have to be very different and much improved from its present standing.

The mindset to be Miles has to be that you encourage and absorb would be tacklers. Once the tackle is coming your goal is not to break through yourself but to pass the ball to your winger. You are thinking of your winger all the time and not taking his space etc.

Miles and Offiah was the perfect centre/wing combination.

cherry.pie wrote:Joel really does need a lot of work to become a good Super League centre. Defensively I don't think he has much of a problem. Obviously when tries are scored down the right someone is going to try and put it down to him but generally he's been pretty strong except when the defence as a unit lets him down.

When he attacks he's constantly running across towards the touchline and sending the ball inside to his winger. That's not actually effective at all most of the time and gives the defence an easy chance to tackle the winger. He needs to work on his passing as it lets him down and he also needs to work on his running angles.
If he can get his angles right then he could make up for other deficiencies in his game. A big powerful centre breaking the line can be a huge threat.

It's worth sticking with him at centre for a while longer but he's got to show some improvement.

Don't think we have an awful lot of other options. For all Gleeson's poblems, he was a tough act to follow!

Joel has potential at centre.

I'd be very surprised if he's ever as good as Gene Miles, simply because not many in the history of the game have ever been that good.

Cherry; watch Joel when he came into the side under Millward at 16/17. He was ofloading superbly in tackles. Whether hat is his natural game I probably agree with you. The fact he can carry the ball in one hand and move it around with his arm well away from his body gives him vast Miles potential.

I personally do not think it was materialise though. He seems to like running at people and trying to scatter them.

Martin Offiah talks rubbish in all fairness but Joel has done some pretty decent offloads out of the back.

cherry.pie wrote:He's better trying to run through people than trying to run around them. Hopefully he'll learn to draw players in and time some good passes but his offloading game won't be seen much under Maguire.
Joel has shown that he's got good handling skills at times with some nice flicks and touches and I agree the way he can carry the ball easily in one hand should give him great potential as a centre.

I've noticed recently that the team are making him chime into the line down the left hand side a few times. In fact it led to a try against Cas with that superb pass/offload but it says something about the way the team sets up when one of the most dangerous right sided players has to join attacks down the left to be effective.

He played left side under Millward but always right side in the reserves. Yes, they seem to have developed a classical RL ploy where both centres are stood together on the left side or rather Joel comes late over to that side.

Anyone who knows me personally would tell you that I've been banging on for a couple of seasons to give Joel a run at centre and I was pleased to see him fill in so well when Gleeson went off injured against St George.
When Madge stuck him in at centre against Stains after only a couple of run outs, I thought it was a bit of a chance to stick him up against experienced centre's. however, he had a really good game and they had difficulty handling him.
Sometimes he runs the wrong angle and gets himself into a bind, but it is a bit new to him and he will improve with experience. His stats hold up well against all of centre's in the SL, with the exception of Carmont, Welham and Yeaman, and that is in his first run at it.

He's got the makings of an excellent centre with a bit more experience. He's certainly got the pace, and possibly more importantly, he's got the bulk that could make him competitive internationally against the aussies in that position.