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I’m not a fan of the concept of co-captains. I see it as a waste of one small “c” and a pair of brackets in the match program.
I get the idea of leadership groups, but I still reckon that is saying something that shouldn’t need to be said.
Every senior player should be a leader, at least to some degree, at a football club. There shouldn’t be the need to declare a selected group.
Back when rugby league players had to work for a living on top of playing, it was the unspoken duty of the older players to pull the younger ones back into line if they stepped out of it.
Leadership groups are a phenomenon of the modern era, where players play and train fulltime and have more spare time on their hands as a result.
More spare time equals more time to get into trouble.
I reckon the leadership group concept got its biggest boost the night a drunken Brendan Fevola imbeciled himself while working a Channel Nine microphone at the AFL’s 2009 Brownlow Medal function.
Despite the fact he was obviously way out of control and shouldn’t have been allowed anywhere near a microphone, there was no apparent attempt made by Carlton types or anyone else to rescue him from himself before it was too late.
True leaders would have acted swiftly and decisively to pull him out of the wreck in no uncertain fashion.
But that’s “Fev”. His very nature meant he was inevitably going to have to learn the hard way in the end.
The news that Reni Maitua and Jarryd Hayne have been appointed as Parramatta co-captains for this season just makes me ask: Why can’t they pick between the pair?
I can’t see any scenario other than Maitua being the “dominant” captain, to borrow a word commonly used in discussions on the two-referees scenario.
Maitua, a lock or five-eighth, will usually be much closer to the action when something happens, while Hayne will be back at fullback.
And Maitua, at his age, should be more comfortable in the role anyway.
I can’t be sure why Hayne would be made a co-captain, but my guess is that it’s a move made to rev him up as much as anything.
There have been suggestions it might be to help with contract negotiations, but Hayne has always made it clear he is happy at Parramatta and wants to stay long-term if his manager and the club can work out a fair deal.
I don’t think the Eels need to throw him a co-captaincy bone to convince him to stay.
There has occasionally been talk out of Parramatta that Hayne wasn’t the greatest trainer, and that it irked other players that he got away with that because he is a very important player to the club.
Maybe the co-captaincy is meant as a motivational tool.
Tim Mannah was another contender for the on-field captaincy at Parramatta, but he has been made club captain, traditionally an off-field role. It’s an indication of how highly respected he is at the club.
The fact that, as a prop, Mannah doesn’t play much more than half a game obviously stood against him being named captain, or even co-captain, but there is also word that he is regarded as being too nice for the job.
The Eels are going to have to go through some more tough times before they can hope to become a genuine force again, and the street-smart Maitua is qualified to dish out the on-field sprays if the players are letting themselves down.
Hayne can look on and learn.
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