Last year, Adelaide lost leaders like Mcleod, Edwards and Goodwin. None of them stayed around the club and Adelaide was left without a real natural leader and without a lot of experience.
Melbourne also got rid of their captain, who was highly respected by the players, along with losing experienced players like Bruce and Miller, who would arguably still be in their best 22.
Teams like Richmond, North and Port Adelaide also have talented lists, but struggle with leadership or cultural issues within the club.
When Melbourne did what they did to James McDonald, I was really surprised.
I go watch Melbourne play every week when they play in Victoria and one thing I have noticed over the past two to three years is that they don’t really have a ready-made captain ready to step in.
When you look at clubs like Geelong, Collingwood and Hawthorn, you can pick out two-three players capable of being great captains, because of their culture and ability to keep retired players on and use them to develop the younger players.
Collingwood, especially, have a great history of this, from Gavin Brown to Tarkyn Lockyer.
I believe Richmond and North are on the right track of changing the clubs’ culture, with two very hard-nosed coaches who plan very well and with one dirty look could kill.
However, North have had great leaders before but haven’t had the system to continue that.
Also, at no point am I having a go at Boomer or Newman as captains of these clubs. I believe they are doing a great job but its a leadership team just as its a club and leadership and a good culture takes a long time to develop, after you lose it for a period of time.
Port Adelaide are a prime example where they had some cultural issues and divide between players and coaches last season and it is still being worked through. Primus, again, looks like the right man to fix that issue.
West Coast is a prime example of how valuable experience and leadership is. Last year, they had their captain Glass missing for most of the year along with the likes of Cox, Kerr and Nicoski.
This season they are fit and roaring (with the exception, recently, of Kerr) and with a similar looking team to last year, they are flying and will most likely finish in the top four.
It allows players like NicNat to play second fiddle and develop instead of having to carry the load of number one ruckman in just his second season and we know big blokes take longer to develop.
So, from now on, when clubs start to rebuild, I hope they realise that going for all youth and dumping older, more experienced leaders from the club doesn’t work. You need leaders and experienced players.
I think smart clubs realise this and they are the ones recruiting mature-age players or keeping retired players on as “development coaches”.
Clubs also need to understand that a culture of a club is also a very important ingredient.
I think the proof of all of this is where each club is at; Adelaide, who do have a talented young list like Melbourne, are up and down, playing two-three quarters and being in winning positions against top teams and then being run over in the last quarter/half of the game.
Melbourne have been different in their games, either playing well and winning by a big margin or the total opposite, disinterested enough to get thumped by a big margin.
At the moment, down at Melbourne, the only real leader I see is Brent Moloney, whilst he has had off-field issues, he seems to love the club, always gives everything and more importantly doesn’t shut up on the field with barking orders.
While they seem to have a lot of young players like McKenzie, Grimes and Trengrove, who will all be a part of the leadership group, they probably still needed McDonald down at the club to teach them until they were ready.
Football clubs will probably look at this more before rushing into getting rid of a good leader, just to fit in another first or second year draftee.
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