3 contenders in this one to rate in order. TKL = Toa Kohe-Love.

matt king any day...no contest

Matt King simply for the semi hat-trick although a lot of bitterness from some fans has clouded their judgement of gleeson. He was top class for us regardless of his off-field behaviour, just check how many tries whoever played outside him scored. TKL could and should have been an amazing player, sadly too many injuries means he can't be regarded as highly as the other 2. Liked a bit of biff though.

As a centre:
Gleeson
King
TKL

For Warrington:
TKL
King
Gleeson

During their career:
King
Gleeson
TKL

Gleeson all day long! Technically the best centre Warrington have had in a long, long time. Then TKL and The King.

King for me all day long!!
Said it before and i will say it again saints had the best years out of Gleeson,i always expected to much from him every time he had ball in hand.
Still not forgot his body language at the press conference when we sighed him if ever he didnt want to be somewhere!!!

Matt King then TKL and lastly Martin Gleeson.
Gleeson could easily have been top of that list but in my opinion he either wasted his time with us or was wasted, depending on your viewpoint.

Matt King.

Makes you realise how three very different players can play the same position.

Tad confused by the difference between 'as a centre' and 'during their career'

For me Matt King as we all know Martin Gleeson is a banker is a tanker

I think its hard to separate them for overall contribution. I would say that Toa at his peak was better than the other two.

If you were rating them out of 10 season by season, then Toa would have been something like
7-6-(out injured)-10-8-9 and in his second spell 6-7

Gleeson would have been something like
9-7-7-7

King would have been
6-9-8

I have always been a Gleeson supporter and like Moe says some Wire fans bitterness towards Gleeson has clouded their judgement. I thought he was on the whole very good for us and deserving of more respect than he gets, but my only criticism about Gleeson, and its still true of him at Wigan now, is that he seems to play within himself a lot of the time. There will be a handful of games every season (and to be fair he has proved himself in internationals where a lot of leading SL players haven't made the step up) where he is world class, and the rest of the time he is good but not world class. This even goes back to when he was at Saints. I thought Gleeson's best seasons were the first half of 2004 before he got banned at Saints, and 2005 for us, he was class every week in those years, before or since that point he has been one for turning it on in patches.

Gleeson did not endear himself to Wire fans much with his surly body language, he never looked interested in playing for Wire even when he played well for us, contrast to King who has come over here and mucked in with the spirit of the club, and made an effort with the fans. But King has also benefited from playing in a strong side, which the other two didn't, Toa played in some quite weak sides. I reckon if you put Toa of 1999-2001 era in King's place in the current Warrington team, he would have been even better than King. King's extra height and power compared to the other two has been a big weapon with Briers and the aerial ball, Gleeson's main strength was his footwork and his quick passing and offloading, but Toa at his best was up with Gleeson for footwork and handling but had a yard or two more pace which made him more dangerous. I find it difficult to rank them for overall contribution/consistency and I am probably tempted towards King, but I remember Toa fondly and at his peak the others couldn't touch him.

I'd say King's body language at Harlequins once was not great. Either way we cut it King has not delivered consistently over the contract, Gleeson is/was hugely unprofessional off field, so TKL for me.

Gleeson didn't want to sign for Warrington. Once he found out that Wigan wanted him and Mo had put an offer in he wanted to play for his home town team. Class centre who's wingman always scores loads of tries.

King had an awful first season and has improved massively. Great in attack but suspect in defence. Good tackler but average in the defensive line.

TKL, good in both attack and defence when he put his mind to it. Too easily distracted. Give TKL a smack and he go looking for that player for the rest of the game rather than wait his time and concentrate on the game.

Allan Bateman, it would have been great if he`d come along during our present era. You couldn`t ask for a more elusive running centre with a side step to admire that hit you like a train, he certainly tackled well above his size.

Its KING all the way theres no competition a player with a massive heart who wants to play for his club. Gleeson well what i want 2 say about him will get me banned from the site!!!!!

Matt King for me,even though his first season which he would admit himself was pretty average he has certainly proved his class now..

Gleeson just went through the motions for Wire IMO.

TKL's defence was poor even though in his first spell for us he was exciting with the ball in hand.

Hear hear. Class player, amazing really knowing we were "skint" at the time.

King played on't wing for a lot of his career. He achieved a lot before even coming over here.

Today's RLFans Made-Up-Fact.

Also apparently we had him locked-up in a cellar to force him to sign his extension to the contract.

Bewfore Wigan offered us a lot of money for him we had agreed to release him from his contract for nothing to go to Australia.


Back on topic difficult to say as King after awful form in his first season has been excellent. Gleeson was very good but did drop in form towards the end of his spell and does not appear to have re-gained his elusive footwork. Toa showed masses of potential but in truth never really delivered on that.

Overall for Warrington I would say Gleeson but if King has a good season again next year he will move ahead of him.

One thing King did in his bad first season was he scored a decent number of tries even though his form wasn't good, like Andy Cole in his early years at United when everybody was mocking him for being not the player he was at Newcastle, he still managed to find the net at a decent rate, so when he did come in to form his career strike rate looked excellent. Kings first season was a disappointment but not a disaster for me, and the fact he kept his hand in with tries and assists means overall his career for Wire looks very good.

I thought Toa did deliver on his potential, for a few years he was one of SL's top players, injuries took their toll on him when he was still in his mid 20s and he was never the same from about 2003 onwards. The other unfortunate thing was that when he was at his peak he wasn't playing in a top side. If he'd been at Saints or Bradford during his peak years he'd have been knocking on 25-30 tries a season and would have got noticed by the NZ Test selectors.

Yeh its suprising that we could afford him with all the money that Wigan, Leeds and Widnes were throwing around at the time, he was one of them rare players thats worth the admission money alone like Jonathon Davies, Phil Blake, Des Drummond and Les Boyd etc ..... X factor players so to speak.

You mean his NSW and Australian career, certainly not Melbourne.

TKL had 2.. maybe 3 seasons where he outperformed both King and Gleeson in their peak seasons for us.... For sheer explosiveness with ball in hand i would go TKL everytime.

King has been solid these last few season.. without really setting the world onfire... i will be honest.. i had expected more of him... dont get me wrong he has been good for us... but i think he will be easy to replace when he has gone.

Gleeson was decent... but like others have said... he played like he wasn't overly interested.

I would choose Bateman over all of them in a heartbeat though.

Good shout, Rob Wire
Five years of 100% commitment from Bateman (as well as being excellent), none of the commitment issues of Gleeson and (v early) King, a better tackler than all three mentioned (I remember him "dealing" with Tuigamala on a couple of occasions), probably faster than all 3, drank a lot less than a certain centre. Don't forget, this is also a guy who came from a (not hugely different, but still...) different sport.

Asides Bateman, I'd have loved to have seen Gleeson in our ranks , under a disciplinarian.
TKL blotted his Wire copybook, when other sides came sniffing, plus his tackling technique at times was woeful.
King just wasted his first season and the first 2 months of the next season. Again, would have been a lot better under a disciplinarian.

Sorry Sal, glaring omission, Bateman for me, too