Quote: Phuzzy "I think you need to reacquaint yourself with his career. He was England A captain at 20, made his full Great Britain debut 2 years before Bateman and won Man of the series for Great Britain at the same age JB is now. He did not 'become the player we know' in his late 20s at all and certainly not just because you choose to remember it that way. On the other hand, if you prefer to ignore the facts then be my guest. The fact that he is STILL better than JB, aged 35, really should tell you the full story.'"
Lockers had this weird stigma attached to him in his early to mid twenties that he was some sort of average Joe (by a section of Wigan fans and most opposition fans) and it took that man of the series performance you mention, years worth of ridiculously consistent performances for Wigan and latterly another couple of international man of the series awards before pretty much everyone has been turned around.
John Bateman is top superleague quality and has the potential to be a good international player but he isn’t and won’t ever be in Sean O’Loughlins League. He doesn’t have the natural ball skills or size of Lockers. These two things combined have made him the World Class player he has been (and on the odd occasion he still is).