‘You must be watching a different’ Mamo as he hasn’t been great in defence this year either, him & Austin have been at fault for a few soft tries down our right edge this year. I’ve watch Mata’utia against us and he defend well from what I saw & one or two other games I’ve seen him play he looked solid on that right side.

Yeah he takes decent carries and runs the ball in hard which you expect from most good centres. As Mata’utia has played at half-back and full back previously on a consistent basis, he’s bound to have a better pair of hands when you compare the two when weighing up the Pros & Cons. Mamo has blistering pace, good step on him and offers a lot of enthusiasm …if you could blend the two players into one you’d have a hell of a player..

MAMA’UTIA

I reckon I’ve watched almost every Castleford game Pete Mata’utia has played in, and I can’t remember him kicking the ball once.

I wasn’t commenting on Mamo. I’ve not seen him often enough at centre to have my own opinion.
I’ve seen plenty of Mata’utia.

Well I’m comparing the two of them as right centre players. Since one is a direct replacement for the other, rather than assessing mata’utia objectively I’m simply forming a comparative between the two.

If we judge someone like a peak Inglis or Jonathan Davies as world class centres & the likes of Keith Senior or Allan Bateman as 'good' centres, then is there anyone in SL right now who isn't above the level of bang average?

I'd reckon not, so if Matautia is bang average then he'll probably be fine in the grand scheme of things.

I wouldn't know if Matautia is a better centre than Mamo, because I've only seen Mamo play at right centre a couple of times so am therefore unable to compare them.
Similarly, you didn't see Matautia's performances against Hull KR, Leeds and Hull FC this season. If you had, your comparison may be very different!

Good point - we are hardly blessed with quality players in that position across SL.
It's a shame, because there's nothing better than a destructive centre with pace, strength and the ability to create tries for the winger.

I think I made this point a couple of pages back on this thread.

Current centres in super league with a bit of X factor and we’ll above average = Percival and King. Both can produce a little bit of magic and King certainly has been doing it for a couple of seasons on that left edge combining with Currie, Widdop and Ratchford.

After that you’ve got Naiqama (above average) and ???. That’s about it. Hurrell is good near the line but his defence seems to cancel out his efforts in attack. And he’s on a marquee salary too so that rules him out.

If Mata’utia is the only available option of an average bunch of centres, so be it. At least he’s working under Powell who has a reputation of getting the best out of average ability players.

I think I made this point a couple of pages back on this thread.

Current centres in super league with a bit of X factor and we’ll above average = Percival and King. Both can produce a little bit of magic and King certainly has been doing it for a couple of seasons on that left edge combining with Currie, Widdop and Ratchford.

After that you’ve got Naiqama (above average) and ???. That’s about it. Hurrell is good near the line but his defence seems to cancel out his efforts in attack. And he’s on a marquee salary too so that rules him out.

If Mata’utia is the only available option of an average bunch of centres, so be it. At least he’s working under Powell who has a reputation of getting the best out of average ability players.

Neither do I, that’s why I said in my original post ‘Mamo for Mata’utia is a tricky one’
I was simply comparing the two from what I’ve seen.

It just shows how poor SL centres are.
I would put King, Naiquama and Percival on a par and arguably the best in SL at the moment, but would take Senior, Davies or Bateman (or Jamie Lyon or Matt Gidley) over any of them.

Looking at that list, it just shows how well Saints recruited.

Mata'utia has to prove his worth for me. (Hopefully in the same way that Chris Hicks did!)

The standard of centres in Super League at the moment is nothing short of shocking. Its no wonder King was in such demand as there are slim pickings out there. Ryan Atkins was head and shoulders above anybody playing centre at the minute,

So our 2 new signings and our new coach are in action tonight,should be an interesting watch.

Percival's overrated

Well that wasn't bad

I’ve always preferred Oliver Gildart to Percival.

Mata’utia has had a couple of nice touches so far the Wakey game.

Sorry i meant goal kicking rather than attacking kicks during gameplay

So was Chris Bridge. And that's not neccessarily saying that I think Bridge was anything special. Just that the present standard of SL centre is a bit ropey...

MOTM and rightly so. Wasn’t a great game by all means does make you wonder how we managed to dish up such a bad performance in the cup.

I'd forgotten about Atkins.. Just shows how players fall off the radar.
Very strong, but didn't get his winger away often enough - I think that was the main criticism of him.

Bridge was a top drawer centre. Could time a pass to a winger better than any wire centre I've seen,...........except gleeson!

Crumbs - yes.
Again Gleeson and Bridge both very very good.

Surprised Reece Lynn not mentioned - he is no world-beater but compares well to others mentioned IMO

Matt King - another one who was fantastic on his day.