Injury permitting

There is no English 13 even close to him. I have no idea what his future plans are but I have no doubt he will be in England's thoughts for as long as he is available.

FWIW he seems to be have been quite well managed this season, I know there have been occasions this season where he has been rested rather than injured. Of course this is all for Wigan's benefit primarily but will do England no harm either.

How time changes everything, I remember the debate when Ian Millward made him captain in 2006 and that may well have been a bit early for him at the time given the circumstances. However when Madge introduced the leadership team I think that was a bit of a turning point for Lockers as he seemed to grow in confidence during that period.

Fully deserved.

Slightly surprised tbh - thought he would have gone for Graham. Maybe because he isn't an 80min player? Not sure what Joel's done to deserve a spot either... Didn't realise Micky Mac and Roby had both ruled themselves out...

Tony Smith and Nathan Brown have both commented in recent post match interviews about how good Lockers is too. Highly rated by players and coaches but very few opposition fans.

SOL went through the usual critique in the eyes of the British rugby league public:

2002/03: emerges in the Wigan team - "this kid could be anything, he is that good, he is the next Andy Farrell, Wigan should stop signing overseas wasters like Julian O'Neill and give this lad a chance"

2005/06: Farrell retires, Wigan struggle without him, SOL form dips: - "next Andy Farrell, my , SOL is the most overrated player in the game"

Now grudgingly he is getting some respect, like Sinfield did over time, because people have realised that although he's not a big ego or personality in the game, he is consistently top class and a player that makes players around him better.

But now comes the next stage, which is annoyingly predictable, the England captain stage. Every time we lose to the Aussies, watch a queue of fans from any club but Wigan saying that he is overrated, not international class, only does it in a Wigan shirt.

That wouldn't surprise me. Very few opposition fans rated Ellery Hanley, Shaun Edwards or Andy Farrell at the time, despite any revisionist stance they may make now,

Pretty much spot on. I despair of rugby league fans at times. I find it hard to comprehend so called fans of the game who post things like ''he's overrated'' or go on about head high tackles etc. Are they even watching the right sport? It seems to me that some people will regurgitate any old crap that they hear thinking it makes them look like they know what they are talking about. Sad really...

Spot on about Sean Edwards. He never created anything - All he did was finish others good work etc and so on. Opposition fans absolutely HATED him. Not sure about Ellery though, I got the feeling there was a lot of respect through gritted teeth.

Not sure I agree with that. Any fan of any club who knows anything about the game can see how good he is. For me he is the best player in Super League with Roby not far behind.

Well said, I agree whole heartedly.

Although a saints fan I Know told me on friday night he was nowhere near the same class as Roby.

I disagree with the people on here who say that opposition fans dont rate or appreciate the quality of O'Loughlin.As a Leeds fan myself he is the player from your team i would like to take if we had a free pick and that would have been the case even last year when Sam Tomkins was still here.

He is a real talisman and leader on the field, and Wigan are so much less of a side without him, particularly in the big games.Its a shame he is so prone to injuries but when on the pitch there are few in his position who are better.That is my only reservstion about him being given the captaincy, but if he gets on the field you know what high standard you will be getting.

I agree he's very highly thought of now. That has only been the case for a couple of years though. Up until that point I lost track of the amount of negative posts about his game. He had a weird reputation as some sort of unskilled headhunter.

He was in a similar position to Micky Mac at the moment. Whilst I don't think he's as skilful as Lockers he's far better then he's being given credit for.

Not bad for a man whos knee bent the wrong way all those years ago!

An old Edwards on one leg destroyed Brisbane Broncos (in Brisbane) in the '97 WWC series when he played for London, Wigan & all other teams did nothing against them. Sadly though he didnt last the full match and London lost ...

Let's not rewrite history here, he has divided opinion amongst Wigan fans for years until relatively recently. It's hardly a 'fans of other clubs' thing.

Always pays more to look at the opinions of others within the game and you won't find anyone there that doesn't think he is a fantastic player.

I think there is a natural resistance to admitting that any player at a rival club is really, really good - unless he either comes in with a massive rep, as Lyon did at Saints, or unless it's forced down your throat as you watch him tear you a new one time after time (Lyon, again).

Lockers initially fell victim to his family connections, rival fans hooting that he was only at Wigan because of Andy Farrell etc. My response to that would be that if Faz had that much influence, Lockers would probably now be a wing-forward in the England RU camp, but that's beside the point.

I agree that very few would now regard Lockers as anything other than excellent captain material. He's had an illustrious career and has proven himself many times.

I think the first sentence is interesting. He never divided opinion among good judges. It was only the, admittedly vocal, bandwagon jumpers who were ever of the opinion he was anything less than top class. Unfortunately in life, and sport in particular, you get people who know very little about a subject regurgitating anything they hear in an attempt to sound like they know what they are talking about. As a result you get the ''he'll never be a captain'', ''he's overrated'', ''he's only in the team because of Farrell'' and ''he's just a headhunter'' type posts. I even heard a fan in the East stand at a recent game shouting ''get out of the way O'Loughlin'' whenever the ball went to him. I kid you not. Some fans beggar belief!

Completely agree. One very vocal fan,who was of an age that should have known better, was giving him dogs abuse at the Widnes game "get off the pitch O'Loughlin-you're a waste of space"!!!!!

"hes a rubbish captain because he doesnt shout at the players behind the posts" was my favourite

The only issue with this is how long he is going to be around or fit to play at this level for?

For me his time to be named captain should have come when Sinfield was given the nod.

Personally I would have liked to see Graham given the captaincy. Locky is tough and experienced enough to be a leader and a great support to Graham, who is proving up to be a fantastic leader at the Bulldogs and would give the team a bit of long term stability.

I think you make a good point here. It was obvious how outclassed the Bulldogs were in the GF. It looked like by sheer force of will and personality that Graham kept them in the game for an hour. It was a great performance. He is the best prop in the world by a distance. No way should he be seen as a loser either. The fact that he has lost in 7 finals says more about his team mates than it does about him.

6 from St Pats, 1 each from New Springs and Rosebridge. That's 8 internationals. What a conveyor belt of talent Wigan produces, and what a pat on the back for all the unpaid coaches at our local amateur clubs.

Absolutely, incredible effort

It's worth mentioning that Charnley and the Tomkins brothers played and developed their skills as juniors at other amateur clubs before being channeled into St Pats youth by service area etc. It would be good to see their jnr clubs get recognised as well.

On a different note, there's been good coverage in the Telegraph all week of RL. The article on SOL today reflects the man very well: [url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyleague/11152429/Grand-Final-2014-England-captaincy-is-rich-reward-for-Sean-OLoughlin-Wigans-quiet-inspiration.htmlHERE[/url