Penrith have divulged they tried to keep Matt Burton at the NRL club as a centre before he prioritised representing as a half by indicating with Canterbury for 2022.

Penrith tried to offer Matt Burton the pull of becoming the club’s long-term starting centre before he opted to sign with Canterbury for 2022.

Burton starred on his return to his hometown of Dubbo on Sunday, tallying three tries and setting up another in Penrith’s 56 -1 2 flogging of South Sydney.

So good has Burton been dallying out wide, calls are starting to grow for the 21 -year-old to feature on NSW’s bench for next month’s State of Origin opener.

It’s an incredible rise, yielded Burton was never regarded as a centre before this year.

A memorandum five-eighth as one of the very best young talents in the game, Burton invested day training in the centres in the pre-season.

It spurred Penrith to stir that part of their offer to him, before still exercising him in the capacity after Burton opted to head to the Bulldogs.

” We made a real attempt to try and signaling him as a centre, but it didn’t come off, unfortunately” Cleary revealed.

” I’m not sure he is out of situation from what I can see.

” He is a good musician, patently he can play in the halves but he is looking pretty good out there.

” He was always going to be a big one of the purposes of our crew. Didn’t exactly know how it would look.

” I ever pictured there was potential for him to play in the centres, as well as back-up in the halves .”

Burton’s performances have also more than apologized Penrith’s decision to hold on to him this year rather than release him to Canterbury early.

He will face his future squad on Saturday, playing in the centres again, before going into the halves when Nathan Cleary misses recreations through Origin.

And while Burton is a Penrith junior who holds the Panthers dear, he said promisee of playing five-eighth full-time was always going to win out.

“( Playing core) get brought up a few hours( in talks) but I believe I’m a five-eighth ,” Burton said.

” I didn’t( make I was a centre ), no chance at all.

” But I’m loving it out there. Only to play( inside) Bizza( Brian To’o) and( outside) Jarome( Luai ), it’s pretty special .”

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