Keith Senior is our YEP Jury’s favourite Leeds Rhinos centre – but who was also in the running?

ADAM ANDERSON


This week we are looking at our favourite centres to have played at Leeds.

I’ve picked one from the past and then one who’s going to be superstar.

Firstly, Keith Senior was possibly the best centre to play for the club.

With 365 appearances to his name, he had brilliant strength in defence and a great mind to know where his winger was.

Not only that, he knew where the try line was with 171 tries to his name. It was disappointing that his career ended with a number of injuries or he would have had more appearances in blue and amber.

Next up, Harry Newman. Already a household name in Super League since Kallum Watkins left the club, he proves the success that dual-registration can have and he’s already in the England squad.

He has pace to burn and can see a try from anywhere. He might be small, but he’s decisively strong and can bust through tackles confidently.

I’m excited to see what the future holds for him and hopefully we see him in Leeds Rhinos colours for his whole career.

CHRISTINE KIDD

It was good to see two great rugby league programmes on the BBC over the weekend.

Even though there’s no live rugby at the moment there is plenty to watch on social media.

Kallum Watkins made his first of over 250 appearances for Leeds Rhinos at just 16 years of age, in 2008. He made his Grand Final and England debuts in 2012 and became Rhinos captain in 2018.

Between 2012 and 2018 Kallum developed into a world class centre. He had speed to burn and scored some fantastic tries for the Rhinos. In 2015 Kallum scored a last-minute try against St Helens which meant Leeds were still on target for the treble.

Keith Senior is another world class centre that played for Leeds Rhinos from 1999 to 2011.

First impressions of Keith were a bit mixed but he eventually won the fans over with his impressive displays in the left centre position.

He excelled in defence and attack, scoring 171 tries during his career at the Rhinos. He was also a regular in the Great Britain and England sides during this time.

GRAHAM POULTER

Hi again everyone. I hope that you’re all staying safe and well. So this week’s position in our team concentrates on the centres. For me there are only two outstanding candidates to fill the two positions of first and second-choice centres.

The first just has to be without question the outstandingly tough, no nonsense ‘Mr Grumpy’ Keith Senior.

He even had a song named after him that was sung in his honour by the South Stand. He was as tough as old boots and he had an excellent relationship with whoever played outside of him on the wing.

A fantastic try provider and scorer, he is definitely a Leeds legend and the fantastic things that he does for various charities since his retirement is testament to the man that he is.

The player who takes the jersey for the second centre is the outstanding talent that is Kallum Watkins.

If he hadn’t had the two horrendous knee injuries that he unfortunately suffered then I’m in no doubt that he would have gone onto score even more tries for both club and country.

It’s a shame how his time at the club came to an end. He’s yet another Leeds legend.

DIANNE HALL

My favourite Leeds centre signed at the end of the 1999 season and took a bit of settling in, but when he did, what a player!

There was no finer sight than seeing him set off, ball in hand in front of a packed South Stand and terrorising the opposition’s three-quarter line.

At first, he got a lot of stick from the crowd, including me, but when I found out that his dad stood in front of me on the Western Terrace, that soon changed my opinion of Keith Senior.

He formed a formidable left-wing partnership with Ryan Hall and was a member of the Rhinos’ three Grand Final wins from 2007 to 2009.

His career was cruelly ended with a serious knee injury in 2011, ironically against London Broncos, the same club he made his Leeds Rhinos debut against.

My other favourite centre is Joel Moon who joined from Salford in 2013. He was a joy to watch and played the game off the cuff. His team-mates and us fans didn’t know what he was going to do, never mind the opposition.

MATT FOWLER

This is probably one of the easier decisions to make, choosing my favourite centre.

There have been some memorable ones in the past 25 to 30 years including Craig Innes, Kevin Iro, Brad Godden and Kallum Watkins to name a few.

My favourite and best I have ever seen in a Leeds shirt is Keith Senior.

A big signing from Sheffield Eagles at the end of 1999, Senior did not start with a bang and many wondered if he would make the grade at a bigger club.

Over the next 12 years Keith won over the hearts of everyone at the club with his barnstorming runs, big hits, try assists and tries. He won every honour for the club and was one of the first names on the team sheet at international level.

The guy was a monster with super speed and every winger he played with improved their game with him as their centre.

He would have been a huge hit in the NRL but thankfully, Keith stayed loyal to the English game and the Rhinos and by doing so has become a legend of the club. He is one of the best centres to have ever played the game.

IAN SHARP

This week it’s the centres and we have more than our share of world class ones, including Keith Senior who is thought of in some circles as the best player to ever play Super League.

Onto more recent times we had the blistering pace of Kallum Watkins and the off-the -cuff antics of Joel Moon, to present cult hero Konrad Hurell and then on the other side the next generation in Harry Newman.

It’s hard to narrow it down, to just two, but I think if I had to pick it would be Watkins and Moon.

Kallum brought so much pace to the side when he burst through and that scares defenders to death.

Once he got on the outside and put the afterburners on, he was gone.

He was never the same after his knee injury and I do think he was rushed back by the club and then treated dreadfully by them when he left.

Moon was certainly a one off with his jinking runs along the line.

I am sure he didn’t know what he was doing half the time.

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