I'm not sure the role of a captain is that important unless you have an Andy Farrell type leader of men. We don't have that at Wigan so this is something new. Will it work? Who knows but no harm in trying.

Course it will work. Maguire came up with it.

Congratulations on being the second one to openly panic - three weeks before we've even kicked a ball in anger.

Adam.....

Why don't you get back in your little box, pull the covers over your head, and wait patiently for the apocalyptic end to our season that you are seeing before we have even kicked a ball in a friendly, let alone in anger?

If it happens, then kudos to you for being one of the few who "knew" that MM's appointment spelled the end of Wigan RLFC.

If it doesn't, I hope that you'll be gracious enough to accept that some of his (and IFL's) ideas might have actually been good - As radical as they seem.

Until then - Take a

Like others, I think it's a way of working with what we've got. In the past, we've all seen times when on-field leadership and direction was lacking. IMO our players haven't always coped well when things don't go their way - on the scoreboard or with respect to penalties. I'm not saying these things were O'Loughlin's fault, they were persistent problems with the team.

So, perhaps it's a way of getting the senior players to step up leadership responsibilities - not just when they're acting as captain, but more importantly, the rest of time. The coach has also let the players choose so he's trying to do it in a way that promotes team-building. Or he could be trying to introduce a competitive aspect between senior players in order to settle on one captain in the long-term, but that sounds a bit like playing with fire to me.

I'm not 100% convinced, but let's see how it goes.

I'm not panicing, i'm not saying we're doomed or anything like that. I just refuse to get overly excited as a number of people are on here about the new setup. It's like I said about Sam last year. At the moment MM and SW could say that we've been playing cludeo in training and some on here would hail it as brilliant.

Let's be honest. We are taking a massive risk in appointing an in-experienced team that could blow up in our face, then again it could be a stroke of genius. Time will tell but as I say i'm refusing to get excited until we see what happens.

Read the post again. I'm saying if it goes wrong that will happen, not that it's already happened.

really? Well I hear they play monopoly regularly in Australia so perhaps he's just easing them in to the new techniques



Back on topic I don't think it really matters to be honest. Can't really see how anyone can get worked up about it one way or the other. May show signs of indecisiveness but don't think it will have a major impact on the field and nor should it.

What you actually appear to be doing is casting considerable doubt on the abilities of Michael Maguire before any of us have even seen his team in action. Which I think is odd even by Wigan fan standards.

Most posts on here are from people who are interested in this development and are prepared to see if it works out (presumably in the calm, non-rocket-science knowledge that he can quickly appoint a captain if it doesn't). The only one getting 'excited' is you.

Nope, I agree with Conroy.


This may turn out to be a stroke of genius, it may backfire, but one thing is for certain- half the people supporting it on here would be crucifying Noble and calling him insane if he had come up with it.

Don't Gold Coast have 3? Luke Bailey, Scott Prince and Matt Rogers/Preston Cambell.
Think a few teams do it in the NRL

Lol there is some MAJOR OTT going on!

The captains role isn't that important FFS! Mathers could come back and be the captain for all it matters.

All this new system allows is for us to have a greater nucleus of players guiding the culture at the club.

I couldnt really give one who leads the team out or who decides if we pick heads or tails as long as I know we've got leaders in the team.

I honestly can't see peoples obsession with the captain role. Maguire is the coach, the players follow his orders and the senior players pick up their game when it's needed- that's no diff than at ant other SL club

I'm not keen on the skysports info bar, thats states Lockers has been 'replaced' as captain.

That's irrelevant. Nobby's gone, get over it.

But anything even slightly unusual development at Wigan, and there are fans immediately questioning the new coach - despite him not having fielded a single team yet.

It's so predictable, and such a cliche.

I'm not questioning the coach or Shaun Wane or Lockers or Gordon Brown. I don't agree with this particular exercise but as i've said I'm not getting excited.

For every 10 people questioning the coach, there are 22 w@nking over everything he does and saying we'll finish in the top two before he's fielded a single team.

It's so predictable, and such a cliche.

It's very relevant.

I'm not sure I have anything to "get over" re Nobby.

As for questioning the new coach, isn't that what forums like this are for?

The only thing predictable in this thread is the almost zealot-like, unquestionable obedience to MM by some.

Bingo! He seems to be doing a lot right but that doesn't mean he has the midas touch that some are attributing to him.

I'm not saying he is but no one knows he isn't. Grrr lets get this bloody season kicked off!

Because we are the greatest club in Rugby League History.

I know it.
You know it.

Now bow or leave.

Seems an unusual decision but I'll reserve my judgement until we're well into the season.

Aye amen there. It's that bad I'm even looking forward to a freezing away day to Yorkshire on Sunday

leadership teams rather than captain is popular in rebuilding sides in AFL in Australia and was also used by a few NRL teams over thje past 10 years. St George under Wayne Bennett being a notable team last year.


It's not radical, maybe just to SL fans.


I think it's a minor but important step in the right direction for Wigan.

Once we're a few games into the season I'm sure the majority of fans' major concern will return to 'are we going to win?' rather than 'who's the captain today?'

We're not going to see much of a change on the pitch really except when a captain is called over by the ref. Let's give it a chance to see if and how it works before all exploding in a fit of teeth, gnashing rage.

Can't wait for Eddie & Stevo's comments on this though. I'm guessing they will be predictably over the top and be missing the point entirely.

Seems to me in reading the details that the 5 cpatains role will be more important off field than on - greater involvement in community activites and representing the club etc - which may not be a bad thing in taking some of the pressure off Lockers (after all the club captain is the most high profile player for non-playing activities so presumably is called on to perform more of these activities than other players). Perhaps this will also pan out in training - the 5 being sort of group leaders - which is far from a new idea (just read Dean Bell's book and it seems that some of this happened when he was here as well - with senior players taking some training sessions).

Also from what is common knowledge some players have acted in simlalr roles within the club anyway - especially if the comments about players such as Phil Bailey are anything to go by (and that is on a positive sense).

On match days I wouldn't be surprised to see Lockers leading the team out on a regualr basis - perhaps stepping aside in lesser games.

An interesting development for sure - will it work? Time will tell.