Warrington Wolves • What makes a good captain and which Wire players were/are ?
Smiffy27 wrote:
We are tending to pick successful captains of successful clubs. In reality there will have been loads of good captains (and Coaches) at clubs who have been less successful. Some blokes just inspire, encourage, are positive and are a pleasure to play with. It is the joy of the game. Wire will have had plenty of good 'uns.
A couple I remember from the early days of Super League are Steve Carter at Widnes and Adrian Vowles at Cas.
Carter came over to Widnes in their first season back in Super League, he had been a one-club man and club legend at Penrith Panthers and was past his best as a player but he had a great presence as a formidable 'hard man' who naturally commanded respect but also a good bloke who supported his teammates and especially helped some inexperienced players who had come from the Championship (NFP as it was then) to their first year as full time pros. Widnes were good that year and after Carter retired through injury they fell apart quickly.
Vowles was a good player as well as captain and he really elevated Cas from being a team that had been struggling against relegation to a game away from the Grand Final within a couple of years, and he won Man of Steel. He was a big leader at Leeds and Wakefield too - you could see he could command a dressing room at a bigger club as well as keep a team in a relegation battle together.
From around that era there were a couple of captains in the 'poophousery' mould, the opposite of the positive 'good blokes' type like Carter and Vowles. Graeme Bradley in the early years of Bradford Bulls was effectively their captain although Robbie Paul had the armband for marketing reasons and was better to put in front of the media. Bradley was a first class poophouse, grumpy, cynical, provocateur type that opponents hated and he used to get on the case of his own players too but he seemed to motivate rather than alienate his own dressing room.
The other one like this didn't play in SL over here, but was a significant player down under: Matthew Ridge who was NZ captain in the 90s. He was a poophouse like Bradley in that he never shut up and liked sledging and provoking opponents, but he was an another who set incredible standards for psychological toughness and was also the 'coach on the field' type of captain, he used to sit behind the line at fullback and shout instructions organising their defensive structure from behind. Ridge was great at firing up his teams because he was so hyper-competitive and always wanting a battle. He wasn't intimidated by big name Aussies and used to tell them they were poop and dare them to take him on.
Not in the same category of great leaders as those, but a slightly underrated one from Wire was Simon Gillies when he was with us for one season. He was past his best as a player and probably a bit of a disappointment from a playing contribution but he seemed to be well respected and he was a good communicator, which we haven't had very often.
Statistics: Posted by sally cinnamon — Tue Nov 16, 2021 9:30 pm — Replies 38 — Views 2887