Lockers : Wed May 25, 2016 7:19 am  

Great servant to the club and great player but I am afraid Lockers has Paul Sculthorpe written all over him. He's never fit and when he is he gets injured within 5 minutes. Completely innocuous challenge at magic weekend. Thanks you've been a top player Sean but hang those boots up.

Re: Lockers : Wed May 25, 2016 7:53 am  

I genuinely would have considered dropping him anyway after his performance against Hull. He was atrocious.

Re: Lockers : Wed May 25, 2016 8:16 am  

Sadly, I agree

Re: Lockers : Wed May 25, 2016 9:21 am  

He certainly should retire from International RL to try to prolong his SL career like Peacock did. It's difficult to see him still being in the England team let alone captain at the 2017 World Cup.

Re: Lockers : Wed May 25, 2016 9:56 am  

Last year he played 20 out of 34 games, his worst return since 2008 when he picked up a season-ending injury. He is currently on 9 out of 15. I'd argue if he keeps playing 60% of games then I'm happy with him. I think we have missed a trick not moving him to hooker when McIlorum got injured to be honest. We have seen with Leeds what happens when leaders leave before others are ready to take over, so giving Sam Tomkins another year to settle in, and Williams another year to mature, before they have to take over leadership surely wouldn't hurt.

Re: Lockers : Wed May 25, 2016 10:14 am  

For me JB is our 'Captain in Waiting' and the natural successor to SoL. Aggressive, but fair, and leads by example. Watching him, both on the field, and when behind the sticks, he seems to be a good motivator, especially for the forwards. Let Sam lead and organise the backs.

Re: Lockers : Wed May 25, 2016 10:23 am  

tedglen wrote:

For me JB is our 'Captain in Waiting' and the natural successor to SoL. Aggressive, but fair, and leads by example. Watching him, both on the field, and when behind the sticks, he seems to be a good motivator, especially for the forwards. Let Sam lead and organise the backs.

Bateman is undoubtedly a very good player, but I've got him in the MM category of 'too uncontrolled to put in charge' at the moment to be honest. A prime example being v Salford last year when he came off the bench, got straight into a fight, got sin binned as a result, returned from the sin bin, got straight into a fight, got dismissed as a result, then tried to continue the fight on the sidelines. We were missing a few that day and lost by 6, we could have really done with him on the pitch and offering leadership, but he was more interested in pursuing a personal battle. Not someone I would trust to have a cool head in a heated situation or be our main point of contact with the referee. However, he is only 22 so I can see him maturing and potentially taking the captaincy in 5 years or so when Sam Tomkins calls it a day.

Re: Lockers : Wed May 25, 2016 10:25 am  

tedglen wrote:

For me JB is our 'Captain in Waiting' and the natural successor to SoL. Aggressive, but fair, and leads by example. Watching him, both on the field, and when behind the sticks, he seems to be a good motivator, especially for the forwards. Let Sam lead and organise the backs.

Sam Tomkins to be the captain for me. Already seems to be the most vocal with our players and officials. Smart player with a massive desire to win. One the most experienced players in our squad with both NRL and international caps. Sadly I can see Bateman leaving in the next few years for the NRL.

Re: Lockers : Wed May 25, 2016 10:54 am  

Last Son of Wigan wrote:

Sam Tomkins to be the captain for me. Already seems to be the most vocal with our players and officials. Smart player with a massive desire to win. One the most experienced players in our squad with both NRL and international caps. Sadly I can see Bateman leaving in the next few years for the NRL.

Agree with the above. Tomkins will most likely now be at Wigan for the rest of his career, he is a natural leader on the field and matured in the NRL.

Bateman will be away within 2 seasons.

The only way I can see us giving him the role is if it was a clincher in him signing a long deal with us without any NRL clause on it.

Re: Lockers : Wed May 25, 2016 3:02 pm  

Yep so agree with Tomkins as future captain. Bateman is very vocal too on the field so it all helps really.
Wonder if they would revisit that Leadership group (Sam, Bateman, Joel, Faz....etc)?