Great news

Bateman and O'Loughlin for me. Not that fussed about MM.

Spot on get Bateman signed up he is a very good friend of Micky Mac

I meant ask opposition players but you sort of prove a point.

He's rated massively by our fans and not much at all by opposition fans. I bet he's rated very highly by opposition players though.

Jamie Peacock must rate him after the way he's got stuck in to him these past few seasons. There seems a real respect between those two.

I think he's seriously overrated by our fans but he's an ok hooker and it's good to have some consistency. Can't help but wonder how we would fare with Roby, Aiton or Clarke though, who are all far more dangerous attackers whilst also making more tackles in defence

Bit harsh in my opinion. Aiton is not a patch on MM and Roby and Clark are more impact hookers who offer a very different style.

I personally think potentially MM has been the player let down most by our lack or quality in the pack as it takes a very special hooker to play on the back foot.

Clark has struggled at Wire and Roby has generally had the luxury of a go forward pack that we don't.

It is however interesting to watch a player develop that I never really rated who is now playing in an average team in the comp in Josh Hodgson who has been brilliant in a poor team and kicked on and I can't help but think MM could have done with a year or 2 in the NRL so he achieves his full potential.

I've been singing Hodgson's praises all season; I think he has been terrific. Like you, I never thought he looked anything special at HKR, but he has really kicked on in the NRL.

McIlorum is a very good player. There is a misconception that opposition fans don't rate him but that isn't true - they just feel the need to correct the Wigan fans who continually try to compare McIlorum favourably to Roby.

I think the 'more tackles = better player' is a bit of a red herring here given that anyone lending their weight to a tackle gets it counted in their stats. Mickeys job isn't to lead the tackle count (we rely on Farrell & Lockers for that) or be that classic terrier like hooker, its to set an aggressive line speed and be the first man in the tackle with heavy contact. That's why we drop off in intensity so much when he's off the field.
Also he's improved immeasurably in his reading of the game in attack especially in his running & kicking from dummy half.
He's not the finished article but we'll really see the best of him when the numbers of substitutions go down and hookers are forced to do longer minutes.

PS - that's not to bag on Roby etc who are all quality but IMO offer their team something different from what Mickey brings us.

England certainly need a hooker capable of playing 80 minutes if possible. Its a big drain on your bench to have to put a hooker there because you know you must rotate them. Its no coincidence that Cameron Smith plays 80 minutes every week, and Isaac Luke can also (though he does get rested sometimes).

not well as MM is far far better

No way.

Maybe better than Clarke, depends what you want from a hooker. No chance he's better than Roby or Aiton (or Josh Hodgson) though.

Seems he got his contract extended as Leeds asked about his availability after Aiton got injured, wouldn't swop him for any of the ones above including Mr Roby!

I never said Roby