Hetherington today:

" Danny has had an outstanding season. It is interesting how his game has matured. In the early part of his career he was an opportunist, but now he has great vision, outstanding ball handling ability, great defence and he reads the game so well. He will rise to the challenge of losing his halfback partner Kevin, and it's one he has already risen to. He has been developing this for the last few years. He will have an outstanding combination with Liam Sutcliffe. "

My guess that McGuire is a stop gap for Hardaker, Ward or Sutcliffe to have the captaincy long term.

My guess is that McGuire will hold the captaincy until he loses his place by which time Lilley will also be in the running.

McGuire captain for 2 years, then Ward will replace him. People suggesting Hardaker or Ablett must be joking. Two of the most petulant, niggly characters around!

Who was captain for the NZ game? McGuire was sensational in that game, ripped NZ to pieces

When Danny gives it up, Zak for captain. Hopefully a nice bonus, which will be a small part of keeping him from going down under.

Long term I see ward being named captain. Playing lose and taking on the level head sinfield roll. Zak should be vice as on the field he gives 100% every game and will always put his hand up when the going gets tough. Similar to the JP motivational role.

McGuire will be captain for the next two years and in my opinion deserves it. He's done enough good on his career to be given the opportunity to prove he's grown up and can be that leader we need.

Also, I really don't think there's anyone else even if they wanted to give it to someone else. Abbo has all the same petulance as mags. Burrow might not even get in the team if Lilly keeps developing the way he is. Ward is out for half the season, same with JJB. And cuthbo, the great man he is Has only been at the club a year.

Mags captain with cuthbo/JJB/ward/Zak leadership team around him.

Quote ="Joshheff90"Long term I see ward being named captain. Playing lose and taking on the level head sinfield roll. Zak should be vice as on the field he gives 100% every game and will always put his hand up when the going gets tough. Similar to the JP motivational role. McGuire will be captain for the next two years and in my opinion deserves it. He's done enough good on his career to be given the opportunity to prove he's grown up and can be that leader we need. Also, I really don't think there's anyone else even if they wanted to give it to someone else. Abbo has all the same petulance as mags. Burrow might not even get in the team if Lilly keeps developing the way he is. Ward is out for half the season, same with JJB. And cuthbo, the great man he is Has only been at the club a year. posting.php?mode=quote&f=17&p=18266676# Mags captain with cuthbo/JJB/ward/Zak leadership team around him.'" A fair assessment. I would have considered Burrow as a potential better captain, but as you say he is not as likely to actually be on the field. At best he will continue in the 'super-sub' role.

Quote ="Joshheff90"Long term I see ward being named captain. Playing lose and taking on the level head sinfield roll. Zak should be vice as on the field he gives 100% every game and will always put his hand up when the going gets tough. Similar to the JP motivational role. McGuire will be captain for the next two years and in my opinion deserves it. He's done enough good on his career to be given the opportunity to prove he's grown up and can be that leader we need. Also, I really don't think there's anyone else even if they wanted to give it to someone else. Abbo has all the same petulance as mags. Burrow might not even get in the team if Lilly keeps developing the way he is. Ward is out for half the season, same with JJB. And cuthbo, the great man he is Has only been at the club a year. posting.php?mode=quote&f=17&p=18266676# Mags captain with cuthbo/JJB/ward/Zak leadership team around him.'" A fair assessment. I would have considered Burrow as a potential better captain, but as you say he is not as likely to actually be on the field. At best he will continue in the 'super-sub' role.

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.

Rubbish. Are you suggesting the club have changed who will be the captain for the season (and most likely the following season) because ward will miss the early rounds of the coming season? No. If ward was the choice he would be captain with a vice captain named who would pick up the slack at the start of the season.

Luckily the club have more good sense.

I don't understand the McGuire bashing on here. He's gone from support player to arguably a top class halfback. McGuire is no mug. He's won just as much as Sinfield. He's been involved in exactly the same situations as Sinfield. In September/October he was the best player in SL. McGuire's biggest challenge is making things tick with a rookie partner rather than Kev. To do that, Hardaker, Burrow, Cuthbertson etc will have to take up a lot of the slack left by JP & Kev. They are all treble winners. They all know what it takes to get results.

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There are some posters on here - notably Gotcha and Gilder who simply don't rate him. IMO their view is clouded by their opinions on Sinfield and his influence on the team and in their eyes McGuire will never match up. His record is every bit as good as that of Sinfield. I am unsure what're he can do to prove to them what he is capable of.

To say he is not a player his team mates look to get them out of the mire is simply ludicrous - deeds on the pitch give tangible evidence of his influence. His tries scored is unmatched in the modern era and his assists will also not be far off being the best since the inception of SL.

To also suggest virtually any player in the side would make a better captain is equally nuts - what is that opinion based on? When have the likes of Ward/Ablett or Hardaker ever captained the side?

Sinfield was great player but he didn't carry the team on his own - he was surrounded by a core of equally great players - including McGuire - who enabled him to do his stuff, that is too often overlooked on here.

Fair enough.

Where have I said I don't rate him as a player David? You're the one least likely to be impartial in any McGuire discussion given your career-long connection to him, no?

I haven't a single shred of doubt about his ability to produce individual moments of high quality.

What I doubt is that his ability to bring those alongside him up to his level is not up to the same standard as the likes of Sinfield and Peacock. There's a big difference between being able to produce yourself, and getting others around you to produce their best.

If the team is in a hole and they look up to see their captain taking cheap shots at people - and let's not pretend Boxing Day was an isolated incident in the way Sinfield/Dorn was - or flapping around dementedly in the face of the officials, do you think that represents good leadership?