Peacock and Morley being injured was a chance NOT to have a prop as captain. Which, in my opinion, ain't ideal.

a. Vital decision time in a game: captain not on pitch...
b. Props more likely to get binned/sent off/injured/bashed senseless.
c. Props don't view as much of a game's tactical development as other players - a lot of it happens behind them.

I know there have been some good prop-captains.

Ellis and O'Loughlin were the obvious choices though.

If you look on the thread on the Saints board, most of the saints posters are fairly reasoned when discussing the appointment, knowing all about Graham's recent pochant for dissent. There's a bit too much temptation to mearly defend our club man against criticism on this board, however.

However, Graham has captained a lot of sides as a developing player including his England age groups.
I don't think many people hear know what the england squad dynamic is and which personalities have the biggest influence in the camp.

There is alot of temptation just to stick by your own clubman and it may seem that Wigan fans are bitter because Graham got it over O'Loughlin. For me this isn't the case. Nobody is doubting James Graham as a player (except in the GF where he decided he wanted to play stand off) and he is clearly one of the first names on the England team sheet and one of the best players in SL.

The problems come with his lack of experience as a captain at senior level and, more importantly, the petulance he has often shown when things aren't going his teams way (which is very likely over the next few weeks). We have seen him storm off without shaking hands, not collecting runners-up medal, screaming at refs. This isn't the model of a captain. Yes he is an influential player in what he does on the pitch playing his regular game, and this imo should have stayed this way.

Are we talking about Shaun Edwards or James Graham here?

Was Edwards "the model of a captain"?

So you took on board the comment about club bias then? :p

Fair enough point I suppose but I'm more wondering if out of the 24 players out in NZ is Graham the best man to be captain, and personally I think not.

I hope you're right, I really do. I want Graham to do well as England RL captain because I want England RL to do well, I am definitely not one of these people who disowns the international team. I just think that from what McNamara's seen this season that he's made the wrong decision. If I'm wrong and James Graham turns out to be a revelation as captain and has a storming 4N and England win the comp then I'll happily eat my words. Just can't see it at the minute.

To be fair, there hasn't been an English human being capable of achieving that for many, many years.

Well, it would seem that rlat least some of his team mates are backing him!rl And for all the reasons us Saints fans would back him.

Oh, and he acted like a halfback in the Grand Final because our halfbacks, such as they were, weren't acting like halfbacks! In fact, most of the team were dysfunctional. As I've said elsewhere, James Graham has never lost his head in an international. There is no reason to believe he will begin on Saturday.

As if any of the players would come out and say its a bad choice.

Ellis would have been my preffered choice followed by o' loughlin graham Never

Brian Smith's take on Graham as captain

rlhttps://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME

Who ever is captain on saturday doesn't really matter, the lads are all fighting for the same goal ( to beat the kiwi's) so lets get behing james Graham and the rest of the team and do this country proud !!!!