Demons’ two captain Jacks the right leadership choice

 

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By Tom Beilby, 6 Feb 2012 Tom Beilby is a Roar Rookie

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 AFL, jack grimes, Jackson Trengove, Mark Neeld, Melbourne Demons

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The Melbourne Demons’ choice to name two young co-captains, Jack Trengove, 20, and Jack Grimes, 22, for the AFL club for 2012 season, should be regarded as an intelligent and potentially brilliant decision.

With less than 70 competitive matches combined the pair could be – and already have been – classified as ‘inexperienced’, but both players play their respective roles in the team similar to players of a much more learned nature.

After another substandard AFL season, the historic AFL club chose to introduce a new head coach, Mark Neeld, at the expense of Dean Bailey.

Neeld chose to re-invigorate the club by completely changing the leadership group. This led to the demotion of former captain Brad Green and senior team members Aaron Davey, Jared Rivers and Brent Moloney.

These players were replaced by James Frawley, Colin Garland, Mark Jamar, Nathan Jones, Clint Bartram and the recently transferred Mitch Clark.

The change of supporting cast was also necessary for the club to move forward with what can be described as an aging player list.



Of the appointments made by Mark Neeld and the Melbourne football club, Jack Trengove’s selection as co-captain is perhaps both the most surprising and yet the most important.

The modest and dependable Trengove will become the youngest ever full-time VFL/AFL captain when the season begins.

Despite his relative youth at only 20 years old, Trengove has shown incredible leadership qualities over both his short AFL career and throughout his junior years.

Melbourne will hope to avoid a similar situation that occurred between former Demon Tom Scully and the new Greater Western Sydney club, and appointing Trengove captain should help to allay any fears of losing the hard-nosed midfielder to either of the new franchises or, more likely, back to his home state of South Australia, at least for the foreseeable future.

The commitment to appoint Trengove alongside Grimes is one that is both smart and necessary when considering the elder of the two players’, Grimes, injury record.

The stark contrast between Trengove’s reliability and the playing record of Grimes is easily recognisable.

Since being drafted for the 2008 season Grimes has struggled with a constant barrage of injuries. His most recent and unfortunate injury to date, a broken bone in his right foot, kept him out for the majority of the 2011 season.

There can be no doubt regarding Grimes’ football ability, but his inability to manage any more than 14 games in his first four seasons cannot be ignored.

By coupling the two young players together Melbourne are effectively covering themselves against any length injury spell that Grimes, or Trengove for that matter, may incur.

The club will be hoping that both Jacks are fit to take the majority of the coin tosses through the 2012 season and into the future.

If both players can stay fit, and impart their own individual style of leadership to the historic team, the Melbourne Football club may finally deliver with its promising, albeit aging, list.

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