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After an AFL season wrecked by injury, Nathan van Berlo isn’t sure if he’ll captain Adelaide again.
Van Berlo says his reign will depend entirely on what is best for the Crows under new coach Phil Walsh.
“I am going to do what is best for the footy club,” van Berlo told reporters on Monday.
“We’re very lucky as a footy club; we have got a number of leaders across our group.
“If it’s in the best interests of the footy club that I am the man to do the job, then we’ll talk about that down the track.
“But for now, for me personally and for the rest of the group, it’s just about getting stuck into training and try to impress the new coach.”
Van Berlo didn’t play a game in season 2014 after rupturing an achilles tendon when a sled carrying weights crashed into him in January.
Adelaide’s captain since 2011, van Berlo returned with his teammates on Monday for the start of pre-season training, not expecting the leadership to be discussed soon with Walsh.
“I don’t expect to have that chat, to be honest, this early days,” he said.
“Probably a decision like that wouldn’t be made until further down the track.
“Phil has got to suss out the group in terms of where the leadership is at from a group perspective; where individuals are at leadership-wise; whether our philosophies are the same.
“There is absolutely no need to rush into decisions like that at this time of the year.”
Van Berlo also used the start of pre-season to try to put a full stop on the controversial mid-September sacking of coach Brenton Sanderson who had two years to run on his contract.
“It was a difficult start to the off-season, I won’t lie,” van Berlo said.
“It was really hard for us as a playing group … but that was 10 or 11 weeks ago now – it seems a mile away for us.
“And we have got a bright 2015 ahead of us so there is going to be no more talk about that for us.”
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