Gareth Ellis - Hull FC determined to end Sean O’Loughlin’s career one game early

It really was that good. That semi four years ago was maybe a little bit better in terms of quality. But when it comes to toughness, working hard for each other, commitment and that desire to win a game, I thought Thursday was up there.

It was a really, really good performance and testament to how far we have come since coming out of lockdown.

Now we’re just 80 minutes from a Grand Final but we know we’ll have to raise the bar again at Wigan on Thursday.

They were unbelievable the last time they played against St Helens – another team that is right on the top of their game – and we will need something similar if not better again this week. That in itself will be a challenge and we now have to back up that Warrington performance. We’ll be hoping to do that against Wigan whose captain Sean O’Loughlin announced on Friday this will be his final season before retiring.

Obviously, I know Lockers well, having played with him for England and Great Britain and against him for so many years.

He’s been a phenomenal player. It’s testament to him that I think most players normally have to go over to Australia to prove themselves on the world stage.

But I think Lockers transcends that; even the Australians would agree that he is a world-class player without him actually going over to the NRL and showing it.

That’s down to how good he’s been and for how long he has, too. They’d agree he is one of the best players in the world and if he had ever made the decision to go down there I am sure he would have shown his quality.

He will have had opportunities but has spent his entire career at Wigan, choosing to stick it out there, and that in itself is impressive; being able to move with the times at that club and with how it’s moved on in the 20 years he’s been playing is again credit to how he has evolved in all the different roles he has played.

We all saw what he could do when we played them in the Challenge Cup quarter-final in September. He’d not played for months and came in for such a big game and obviously had such an influence. He doesn’t play as often as he once did but when he does he’s certainly as effective as he’s ever been: that shows his quality – evolving his game to bring the best out of himself but also those around him, another extremely rare quality to have.

He’s got that in abundance. Those who play with or against him always speak so highly of Lockers, who has played an astonishing 457 times for Wigan.

Talking of loose-forwards, someone just starting out his career is our own Joe Cator at Hull. They are a little bit different. Lockers in his prime was the last of the traditional loose-forwards who could play stand-off – you speak of him in the same breath as Paul Sculthorpe and Andy Farrell in that regard.

Joe is probably the modern-day 13 like Victor Radley and Cameron Murray in Australia: really hard-working, industrious and vital to your team, not just with ball in hand but with all the work off the ball.

They pop up when the last-ditch tackles need to be made or are pushing in support on attack and do all the little things that often go unnoticed yet are so valuable to the team.

Joe does all that and has really taken his chance this year. He came from Leigh with probably little expectation from most people at the club but has certainly gone on; I’d say he is a real vital part of what we’re doing.

When I wrote before about commitment and desire, he’s at the heart of that for us and is a big reason why we have done so well for the last month or so.

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