Which is why they were such consistent winners and also why I never fully bought in when people used to say Wire had the best squad back in 2010-12. We had a great team but we didn't have the on field leaders that Leeds had.

True, Sally, but we definitely had the better side/squad.

Leeds had the one word that we didn't, and I've used it several times before......battlehardened

We played 4 big games with Leeds in that era and it was 2 wins each, but the revealing thing was how different the match up felt when we played them in daylight in August at Wembley compared to nighttime in Sept/Oct.

In the 2010 and 2012 Challenge Cup finals, it felt like a match up between a once great Leeds who were now a declining force, and a Wire team at the peak of their powers. In the 2011 semi and 2012 Grand Final, it felt like a match up between a relentless Leeds team who were in their element, and a nervous Wire team who were uncertain in the big occasion.

And Leeds continued to be a top team after that Wire team had disappeared, so they weren't really in decline.

Great point. It takes more than just a captain to make a team a championship winning team. Players need to compliment each other with their particular skill set that they possess, and equally important, to play for each other. The coaches job is to increase the skill set of every player, to maximise teamwork, utilise its strengths and exploit the oppositions weaknesses.
Sounds easy, but a lot can wrong on the day, as we've experienced in our recent play off history. So we need a coach, captain and team, that doesn't let things totally unravel as we did against HKR. To win a GF, you need a lot of factors to combine and a little luck too, and when you need to make your own luck, then don't do the wrong things out of sheer panic.

I hope that Powell has had a long conversation with Ratchford, and a few other senior players, who let the red mist descend after we went 6-0 down in our last game.

This "unravelling" or lack of composure has been with us a long time

2012 GF Leeds 18 - 14 up with 20 minutes to go - lost 18 - 26 (capt Morley)
2013 GF Wigan 16 - 6 up with 31 minutes to go - lost 16 - 30 (capt Morley)
2016 GF Wigan 6 - 0 up with 25 minutes to go - lost 6 - 12 (capt Hill)
2016 CCF Hull 10 - 0 up with 20 minutes to go - lost 10-12 (capt Hill)

With the mental fragility still unaddressed we compounded that under Price with the inability to score points when it mattered ...

2018 GF Wigan we just couldn't score for 68 minutes - lost 4 - 12 (capt Hill)
2019 Playoff1 Cas - lost 12 -14 (capt Hill)
2020 Playoff1 Hull FC - lost 14 - 27 (capt Hughes/Hill)
2021 Playoff1 - Hull KR lost 0 -19 (capt Hughes)

In our 5 big games with Price we won 1 against Saints CC 18-4. The telling stat is that in all those 5 games we only scored a total of 48 points.

If Powell can fix the composure and attacking threat we will have a much better chance of success.

Hit the nail on the head with composure and mentality. Not just with the captain but all the senior players. To be fair to Cooper if a ball is stripped from him and the decision does not go his way I can't remember him spitting his dummy out and shaking his head and waving his arms about in disbelief. Hill was always doing it when things weren't going his way. Ratchford in the play off game against Hull Kr was done like that and then was still in the line whinging at the ref when Mike Lewis chipped through..
I think smart teams target players like this knowing that they will lose their head.
I can't remember players like sinfield or Roby ever being thrown off their game in this manner. When you see a senior player reacting like that you know they are rattled and worried that the decision has impacted them it puts doubt in your own mind and gives the opposition a lift.
Rl is an incredibly physical sport but if teams can sense that the mentality is not right then you are there for the taking..

Don’t want to drift the thread, but I was just thinking about that 2018 GF, Wires71. The game turned when George Williams spotted a chance to kick to the corner behind Charnley and Davies raced down the wing to pounce.

I don’t think I can remember the last time Warrington tried that? It’s just the sort of vision that Williams and Widdop have though, and I can’t wait to see Ashton benefit from that sort of stuff.

With regards to the Captaincy, maybe we should try someone like Holmes. You can argue he hasn’t earned it here, but maybe we need something left-field to put the losing mentality behind us. Did he get the chance to captain Cas at any point?

I can't see past Mike Cooper as our team captain for 2022 myself. Only other credible options are Widdop, Currie, Williams and daz Clark IMO.

For the best captain I have seen at Warrington it would be the"Old Fox" - Harry Bath.

For my own club it would be an ex Warrington player Roy Francis.

Was Currie the captain of the English schoolboys or academy teams at some point? Or did I imagine that?

John Bateman was the captain of the England Academy team v Australia that Ben Currie played in which I attended at Leigh Sports Village.

Currie is a year younger than Bateman, so there could have been subsequent games that he captained? .

Out of interest, in the modern British game (and not just Wire), can anyone name a player who comes across as a natural leader, in the way we seem to be recalling the likes of Sinfield or Farrell were?

Personally, I can't. Perhaps Roby at a push, but that's more down to the length of his career and the subsequent success he has had.

Maybe the lack of natural leaders in the modern game is another indicator of how sterile and formulaic the game now is, compared to previous eras, and that the real leadership is provided by the coach and his assistants, via walkie talkies around the pitch - I mean its blatantly obvious that the job of the water carriers isn't just to carry water onto the pitch?

So, perhaps the idea of a 'captain' is now an outdated one and the real on pitch leader is actually sat in the stands, providing constant guidance, via his staff?