Northampton_Saint wrote:
No centre, playing to the kind of conservative, rigid system Royce employed, getting the kind of ball Gleeson got last year, could have looked good going forward. None. Maybe he should have ignored all instructions, come off his wing and chimed into the line at #6 instead and snatched the ball out of Lomaskell's hands to keep you happy?
Give over. The way you talk anyone would swear Royce played the most conservative gameplan in the history of Rugby League (how many tries did we score last season, BTW?). I've seen plenty of narrow teams over the years. And I've seen plenty of centres play well in such. I spent the best part of ten years watching the ARL precisely at the time when it was invariably a dour forward battle and any centre who received quality ball in space would be accompanied by a marching band celebration! Didn't stop them producing some of the best centres in the history of the game. But carry on trying to affirm a negative.
WTF????? He had no ball before the injury. He's been injured ever since it. Kind of by definition of what an injury is..... Huh?????
Revision. Revision. Revision. He had NO ball? He didn't receive a
single pass? That's odd because I swear I saw him latch onto quite a few. Indeed, I've got the video to prove it.
Long story short - Gleeson arrived as a second rate but best available replacement for Iro and developed into a top player over the course of a couple of seasons. Sound familiar to you at all?
Gleeson developed into a damn good centre within twelve months in a team that shifted its attacking thrust from the centres to the middle of the field. He went from a position way behind Shenton's at Castleford to one where he was twice what Shenton has lived up to so far in a Saints shirt. The notion that Gleeson was given as much ball as he could dream of is pure nonsense. In terms of attacking possession he was very much behind Long, Sculthorpe, Martyn, Cunningham and even Wellens. Hell - he wasn't even the primary attacking centre! And yet he still somehow managed to make a name for himself and go from effectively a nobody to the GB team. So far Shenton has yet to hit the form he showed at Castleford!
