Wardle hasn't hit top form yet but neither has half of the team.

I'm confident over the whole season we'll be glad we have him rather than having Bibby or Thornley (for 2 games until he gets injured again).

When you say "every other time", could I ask how many times this is. Genuine question....

Probably about 4 max.

Price used to do the annoying thing of making 2/3 changes to cover one injury, and despite what jonh keeps saying, he played the majority of his time at left centre, but when playing back row, it was right sided.

Ieveryone remembers the first game where he did play well, so there's a heavy dose of confirmation bias going on

tbh with you, i dont really know what wardle's top form is, he wasnt someone i was overly enamoured with at huddersfield, he got talked about a lot, but i can't say i saw much, he was ok with us last year, but i wasn't that bothered about him not signing for us, save needing a body with what was going on with toby.

In that case your original "shoot down" post carries little merit, unless you consider 3 or 4 games dropped in ad hoc to be a representative sample.

I tend to agree with Moe in that I always thought he'd make a decent(ish) second row - in that I thought he would be more useful there than at centre.

I think Mr King's problem is what is between the ears. He is a well known space cadet but RL players are not known for their intelligence, however I think he's not the brightest on the field as well.

I don't think he played well for you on Thursday as I don't think you should be judging centres on what metres they make - especially when he only made 10 when intercepting with a full field ahead of him - that was plodding even by his standards.

I used to defend King quite a bit and could see a player in there somewhere. Maybe Wigan can concentrate on his strengths of running into contact, offloading and high balls near the line. Bound to have a blinder against us.

it might be a small sample size, but if we say 4 games, a quarter of those he was good, and three quarters he was bloody terrible(see the first game with fans in v huddersfield in 2021 when kenny edwards tore him a new butt hole) i'd say that was a fairly good indicator, even on a small sample size.

*pew pew*

Suppose it all depends what you need from your centres. We do tend to use our outside backs to make ground for us, from our end of the field and he’s doing that extremely well. His defence has been fine in the main as well and his offloading game has added to us. What I do worry about is that the lad seems to play well when forced in to it (when his Wire contract was up and now that he’s in a bit of limbo) and if we did make it permanent, would he continue to do that graft for us? If you take that workrate from our end away, you’re not left with a great deal in fairness.

I think history shows that very few centres successfully make the change into the backrow?

My initial thoughts are that at Wigan they are very few and far between. The exception to this was Bill Ashurst in the 70's. He was very aggressive for a centre and he made the move almost flawlessly.

King has made a steady start but hasn't for me shown any "classic" attributes for the position a la Carmont, Gleeson or even Goulding. It's early doors so hoping that with time he will improve, particularly in his partnership with his winger.

Wardle I think has a bit of pace but seems to lack a bit of confidence and his work rate isn't particularly great.

The next 3 games will I suspect give us more of an insight to both players.

By that logic, if he played 10 minutes and was good for only 2 1/2 of them then the conclusion is he must be bad. A small sample size is a small sample size and no amount of breaking it down into percentages or fractions alters that. You also don't seem to have taken into consideration that he was being shoehorned into a position, not one he had had a chance to train for, have a preseason for or in any way prepare for. Your conclusion is flawed at best and biased at worst. It certainly isn't reasoned.

That said, I have no Idea if he'd make a good 2nd row or not (neither do you) and I'm certainly not arguing that he would. He has certain attributes that suggest he would but that means nothing if he wasn't able to apply them. Time...and by time, I don't mean 4 games... would ultimately tell.

Correct. He has, however, had a lot more than 4 games at centre and has yet to prove he’s anything other than a mediocre one….so you bette hope he does make a decent second rower.

Quick, elusive, able to draw a man, good hands - they’d be the main attributes I’d want from a centre (as well as defence). King doesn’t tick any of those boxes.

We don't really need to hope for anything other than he has a decent season for us, if not he's back to Wire with no hard feelings on our part.

Didn't Gene Miles go from centre to second row, then back to centre upon joining us? Of course his winger helped a bit.
I think both our new centres need more time yet.

Ben Westwood was a centre who didn't have much pace or passing ability. He turned out OK after switching to the second row.

Didn't Gareth Ellis start out as a centre?

Ellis at Wakefield played centre, secondrow loose and also stand off.

Did all pretty well. Very special player.

Centre and secondrow are very similar positions in regards a lot of elements Isa was a specialist centre at one time too.

Wardle could go well there he has the attributes to however I believe he wants to be a centre for the foreseeable.

chris mckenna, dean bell, ellery hanley.....there are literally loads

But he does have a good offload, is excellent under the high ball, is pretty solid defensively and makes metres for fun. All attributes that would suggest he'd go well at 2nd row. Which is pretty much all that was said in the first place. (pew pew)

Gilmour, Wild, J Tomkins

Bell and Hanley is over 30 years ago

There are literally loads though.

Very similar skill sets in the modern game too.

Phil Bailey, Isa, Tomkins, Tony Iro, at our club alone.

Tony Carroll, even Hurrell at Saints who is transitioning between the two.

Gilmour is a good one. Over 20 years ago though.
Tomkins went from forward to centre in rugby union?
Don’t remember Wild playing centre but if you say he did fair do’s.
How many in the last 20 years? Isa? Not a very compelling case.

They are few and far between. I stand by that.

Not every player changes position….but when they do centre to secondrow is a fairly natural switch.

I’d say if any player swapping position centres moving to secondrow have been the most successful at transitioning.

Tony Iro was 30 odd years ago.
Bailey 20 odd years ago.
Tomkins played centre at union because he would never get a game in the forwards in union.
Isa not a very centre or forward. Isa for emergency centre is fine but for permanent role there……….
Tony Carroll???

The skill sets are similar in my opinion due to playing at centre with traditional skill sets is exceptionally difficult and is perhaps the most difficult position to coach.
By the way how many ball handling backrow forwards have we got or had this millennium?
Burrell should be in the forwards but just isn’t fit enough to play there.
Name me a Wigan centre who has converted to the backrow this millennium?

what you're getting back to there though is what people have been complaining about over the last 20 years, the game changing to identikit, 6ft 2 16 stone players that you can pretty put in most positions,and do a job.