These traits of Mags' have been pointed out before i think he's a sound enough captain when we are winning and playing well with momentum but when it gets into a grind starts going wrong and we are behind/getting outplayed i don't think he's got the character to lead from the front and pointed it out last year.
Whatever we think on here it's his to lose although personally i'd go with Cuthbo/Zak then give it to Ward longer term in a year or 2.

I would say it has to be McGuire on the basis on not too many with the credibility or availability to do it this year.
JJB and Ward will missa fair slice of games. Abblet does not seem vocal enough and Zak over McGuire would see a dummy spit somewhere along the way.
I also thin IF Sutcliffe makes it as a 6 that Lilley will replace McGuire in 2017 anyway and Zak or Ward will take over the armband.

Short term - either McGuire or JJB until they retire.

Long term - either Sutcliffe or Ward. Both seem level headed and would be good replacement for Sinfield in my opinion.

I've not seen anything from Ablett to suggest he's the best candidate for captain. That's not a criticism of him. Not everyone is.
As for Hardaker, maybe in the future but he'll have to mature a lot and show different aspects to his personality than he is now. In fact he'd be pretty much last on my list of major players id want as captain at the moment. Again, not necessarily a criticism, the team needs different types of players in different roles.

Good assessment and conclusions. I would add Lilley to the future contenders list.

I agree with most of what you say. My only comment would be that as jjb is injured and is possibly in his last year I wouldn't think of him as an option.

That being the case all roads lead to mags in the short term.

Your captain needs to be someone the team can turn to for inspiration when they're in a bit of a hole.

No disrespect intended to Danny McGuire, but that really isn't him.

The penalty given away for the late hit on Miller epitomised everything that's wrong with his game when the team are struggling. He gets frustrated, gets out of his game and goes looking for confrontation either with opponents or officials.

He's got the job effectively by default. Three members of the senior player group all going at once, injuries and indiscretions of others have ruled them out of the running. He's one of the few senior players who will be on the field for 80 minutes in most games.

I agree which is partly why I suggested JJB. Though I'd also I think it helps having a captain who is on the pitch a lot, something which might not be the case for JJB.
Other people have floated the idea of Ablett, Cuthbertson or Hardaker. I don't think Ablett has the "inspiration" aspect nor do I think he'd make a good captain. Hardaker it's way too early for. He needs to concentrate on himself and his own game and ensure his own attitudes are the correct ones. And at the moment I don't think he'd make a good captain. Cuthbertson's a maybe from me. He'll be on the pitch a lot but not all the time. He seems to have "bought in" to the club but things can change with overseas players especially.
In the end a lot will depend on how the candidates act and interact with the other players off the pitch. That was a big aspect to both Sinfield & Peacock gaining the respect of the other players.

Unfortunately we aren't going to immediately find another Sinfield, so we've got to go with the best of what we have.
Though whoever gets the job is still going to require the support of other leaders in the squad such as JJB, hopefully the likes of Cuthbertson can fill some of the leadership role of Peacock too.

Is McGuire set to be the Cummins of this era?

In what way?

I don't think anyone is questioning McGuire's place in the side in the way that Franny's was on many occasions, but I think there are certainly parallels in terms of their suitability to be captain.

But not all inspiration is in the same form. There are plenty of moments you can pick out over his career when he has stepped up and inspired when needed.

Personally I think if Ward was fit for the start of the season he may well have got the gig.

I disagree with the first assumption - the Huddersfield game shows what he can do and that is far from an isolated incident - he has dragged this team out of the mire numerous times.

He is passionate and sometimes that gets the better of him but is that such a bad thing? You could pick out the Cas game when Sinfield went in with head or the Leigh game when Peacock went in with his fists both in games when the team was up against it!!

He needs to modified his persona on the pitch especially towards refs - but if "you are ever in a jam, I'm your man" McGuire is the man and he has proved it so many times it is only a matter of time before he does it again.