Quote: Aboveusonlypie "To dismiss O'Loughlin as "one injury prone back rower" is a bit silly.
Along with probably James Roby, he is the best player in Super League. Any team would miss that sort of quality.
We have struggled to replace Sam Tomkins and now we have lost Blake Green. The team is of course, adjusting to life without two of our three creative influences from the double season. Losing Lockers this early in the season makes that transition harder.
I'm not sure why teams aren't expected to struggle when their best player is out injured. I mean, if we didn't struggle, no doubt you'd similarly dismiss him by saying "he's not that good, you can play without him!"
As has been noted elsewhere O'Loughlin is probably three players in one, such is his influence on the team.'"
Sorry, I'm not dismissing him - he's a fabulous player (those with long memories will recall I held that view when it was far from unanimous on here amongst Wigan fans!)
My point is that if you can have a first choice 1/6/7/9 on the pitch, but contend that they aren't firing because SOL is missing, then I'd say the problem is less the absence of SOL and more the people in the 1/6/7/9 shirts.
You compare him to Roby and I agree that is a good comparison in terms of importance to the respective sides.
However, if we were missing Roby but had Lomax/Burns/Walsh/Lance at 1/6/7/9 I don't think we'd be talking about us struggling to post points - that was more my point.