Prompted by a number of posts that say 'such and such is not a good captain', who do you think has been a good Wire captain and what qualities do he bring?

Was Morley a good captain because he led from the front? But you rarely saw him remonstrating with players on the field after they made a mess of things.

Or Briers who often roasted players behind the sticks with arms gesticulating?

I was pleased that the captaincy was removed from Chris Hill because it took pressure off him and allowed him to concentrate on what he did best.

Or is it more about what goes on in training and the match is just the tip of the iceberg so we as fans don't get a complete picture.

I don't think I've seen a complete captain to be honest but would like to hear others views.

In my time watching Wire, the greatest captain by a long way is Mike Gregory.

Despite being from Wigan, He fully appreciated playing for the club, was a superb player and, as a captain, led by example with his performances and his whole demeanour on the pitch.

If you could bottle the ideal RL player and leader, there would be a whole lot of Mike Gregory in it.

Yes - he came to my mind when writing this, but I didn't see enough of him to form a well founded opinion. He was injured for much of the time I started watching and when he came back wasn't at the same level as he had been.

The Mike Gregory of the 80's, upto the 1990 CC final, walks into ANY rugby league side.

And he could probably be a suitable leader for any RL side too.

Looking back, that pack that won the Premiership in 86, was probably the best balanced pack I've seen play for Wire - it had everything, pace, power, aggression, great defence, fantastic attacking threat and some superb ballplaying ability, of which Mike was one of the best - He had all those named attributes.

Imagine Sean O'Loughlin and then go to another level up.

To answer your first question, I'd say:

Leads by example
Can inspire with words
Great communicator
Knows when to encourage
Knows when to criticize
High expectations of him and the team
Keeps standards high
Acts as a bridge between players and coach
Rises to the big occasion and is fearless
Stands up for the team
Knows where the line is and keeps a cool head
Can manipulate referees
Expert at the dark arts
Takes responsibility
Is decisive

The closest to ticking all those boxes is probably Sinfield. As for Wire players, Briers had a lot of the communication parts of that list and Morley had the inspirational side. Don't think we've come close to having the full package in the last 15 years or so.

And looking at that list, how many boxes would Hughes tick?

I think Farrell has to be up there. Ticks the the same boxes as Sinfield except that he had much better influence in rollocking his players when the chips were down. He was the one who boosted Wigan to snatching victory when it looked like they’d have an unlikely defeat during their glory years.

What I would have given for a Farrell type character in that Price team. We could have won the GF a couple of times.

Liftin Trophies

Ned

I'd Say Cooper and Widdop would be my choice for Captain and vice captain. But i don't know any of them and don't see what they do behind the scenes, so i'll just leave it to Powell

Precisely.

I never got the plaudits given Sinfield as a player. Don't get me wrong, he was an excellent SL player, but not to the levels we're led to believe.

[size=150HOWEVER[/size, as a leader of men, he's untouchable. An inspiration to his team and fans, and is the main reason for Leeds' success for the last two decades. Without him, Leeds don't win half of the stuff they've won. Typical example, their title of 2011. Leeds were nowhere by May. Yet, with his (and McDermott's) influence and inspiration, they dragged themselves up, and won SL (beating the best Wire side of my watching lifetime in the semi, along the way). His selflessness shown towards his mate Burrow, exemplifies this.
Farrell, I'll allude to, too. Maybe throw a Shaun Edwards into the equation, as well.

Looking at our current playing roster, we have no one within a million miles of his attributes. Just a collection of players with varying abilities.

As for our past captains, DSM sums up Mike Gregory perfectly, and Morley was a great leader for us, just not in the Sinfield mould, though.

I think the fact that there are so few names mentioned shows how difficult it is to be 'right up there'.

In some ways a cricket analogy would be Mike Brierley.
A good batsman, but not world class, but in my view one of the best captains there's ever been. He really understood the game and how to get the best out of the team.

I don't think the Brierley analogy would translate to RL. There's more scope for a captain's decisions to make a difference over 5 days in a slower paced tactical game like cricket than in 80 minutes in RL and you can't hide a 'passenger' as easily in RL either. Brierley was fortunate that he had Botham at his peak and a very good England bowling attack.

Jack Napier has covered a good list of qualities above, and I also like lefty's analysis of Sinfield. I think Sinfield v Sculthorpe is a revealing comparison. Both are probably regarded as really good captains and Sculthorpe was the better player and very much a 'lead from the front' type, but I think Sinfield was the better captain, I think he's the best captain in SL history. Almost like having a coach on the field. One thing I always really noticed with Sinfield was how focused he was and how undistracted he got by stuff going against him. Bad refereeing decisions, making mistakes, Leeds conceding tries, he always had this sense about him that he was in control and knew how to get it done in the end. I think it transferred to the whole team too which is why a number of times Leeds had messy regular seasons and went through long lapses in form but you had the sense that neither Sinfield nor his team was bothered and they still knew they would get it together when it counted.

I think there's also something about being a clear communicator and having more to offer than just shouting or appealing to 'passion'. I remember hearing Mal Reilly talking about the night before the Grand Final when he was Newcastle Knights coach, and several senior players had been making speeches about how guys should realise they might only get one shot to play in a GF, make it count, lots of appeals to passion and brotherhood etc. Then it came to Andrew Johns turn to speak - Johns wasn't captain yet and was only in his early 20s at the time - and he was struck by how clear and focused on the practicalities Johns was: basically giving a few key messages about what he would do on the field and what the others needed to execute around him and if they did that they would win.

The ultimate captains have a kind of aura around them and stand a bit above their team. The Aussies are good at producing these - Wally Lewis, Mal Meninga, Brad Fittler, Darren Lockyer, Cameron Smith. They played with a load of other great players but there was no doubt around their elevated status as leaders.

I agree about Sinfield but he also had Jamie Peacock and Danny Maguire who would have been worthy captains. Never mind Beep Beep. Plus Ablett and JJB who would have been crucified by Wire fans but were the glue in those Leeds teams that held it together whilst the stars shone.