Grimmy wrote:
Gelling is 3rd in the league for carries and 4th for metres made, all despite not playing full back or wing where you get easy metres with kick returns. He also gets either a try or an assist per game and seldom gives away penalties. His errors are a big problem but take them away and he would be the best centre in the league IMO. Plus he made 0 errors last night for a change
For me Gelling says a lot about the declining quality of Super League. I don't think he's got the intelligence to be a top centre. He's unpredictable. I'm not saying all centres should be predictable, I mean it in the sense that his winger will never know what to expect or whether he'll get the right pass or not. The best centres will create space and give their winger the right pass time and time again, whether it's a straightforward pass, a flick pass, a pass out the back door. It doesn't matter - their winger will know that it's going where they want it. I don't think Gelling is that good and I don't think he'll ever reach that level of consistency.
Gelling's work rate is impressive though and it's obviously very valuable to the team. In some ways he offers something that you wouldn't really consider essential to the role he's playing. You would generally never sign a centre purely because he can make 200 metres in a game when on form, but you'd also think long and hard before taking a player who can make those kind of metres out of the team, no matter what position they play.
I don't think Gelling is an intelligent player. There doesn't seem to be much thought process in what he does, or perhaps he's just playing on instinct. Last night he took the ball from dummy half and launched a kick on the last tackle. That's either incredible stupidity that had a surprisingly positive outcome, or he's actually a quality kicker and intended that to happen and it's just been kept a secret.
Despite all the negatives, I'd still agree that he's one of the better centres in Super League, but I don't think there are many top quality centres in Super League at the moment. He does have good qualities on top of his work rate. His handling skills are good (when he keeps hold of the ball) and he's got good footwork so he can make good ground and be difficult to bring down. His height also offers another target for kicking. I also wouldn't swap Gelling for Turner, Jones or Percival at Saints and they are currently the top dogs.
In short, I haven't a clue what Gelling is or is supposed to be, but having him in the side is both great and terrible at the same time.
