Warriors name O’Loughlin as sole captain

Reigning Super League champions Wigan have named loose forward Sean O’Loughlin as their captain for the 2011 season.

The 28-year-old was first appointed Warriors skipper in 2006 but the arrival of Michael Maguire as head coach saw the club employ a five-man leadership team in 2010.

The move saw O’Loughlin sharing captaincy duties with Andy Coley, Thomas Leuluai, Phil Bailey and George Carmont. It proved to be a successful experiment as the Warriors topped the Super League table before defeating rivals St Helens in the Grand Final.

Warriors boss Maguire explained the decision to revert to using one captain. 

“Having sat down with the leadership group to discuss the matter together, we decided to have a single captain in Sean for this coming season,” he said.

“The leadership group worked really well last season to help me effect the changes in performance throughout the squad that were needed in our first year together and, further, gave a number of senior players the experience of leading the team on match-day.

“However, the Wigan squad now know that it is the responsibility of all the players in a game to take charge and, whilst we will continue to use the leadership group in training, Lockers is seen clearly to lead from the front and was the unanimous choice to be made Wigan captain for the coming season 2011.”

O’Loughlin made his Wigan debut in 2002 and has made over 200 appearances for the club.

The Great Britain and England international said: “It is always an honour to captain the Wigan side and I am really looking forward to the season ahead. 2010 was a fantastic year for us and the highlight for me was lifting the Super League trophy at Old Trafford last October.”

“We have a quality squad with three great new additions in Ryan (Hoffman), Brett (Finch) and Jeff (Lima) and we are looking to build successfully on what we achieved last season.”