The start of 2012 saw Melbourne Football Club appoint two extremely young co-captains in Jack Trengove and Jack Grimes. It’s time to admit that the gamble has failed.
Not that the players haven’t tried. But at 20 years of age, Trengove became the youngest captain in VFL/AFL history. Grimes was not much older at 22.
The debate when they were appointed was whether such inexperienced players would be able to make the hard calls and challenge their teammates, as well as guide them in what new coach Mark Neeld was trying to implement on the field.
No doubt the hardest aspect as a leader is looking your teammate in the eye and telling him when he needs to improve in certain areas, to lift his game or to adhere to the team ethos.
This becomes even harder when the team is going poorly.
A leader also needs support across the club to help particular players turn things around.
As a leader you use what tricks you can to help team cohesion, but when your team battles over a prolonged period, it becomes even harder to keep your teammates up and try to get something out of the year.
Starting out last year, the co-captains lost the first nine games. Their side was accused of a lack of intensity, effort, and work rate, not things that any leader of men wants to hear.
Nonetheless, the two Jacks ended up getting through the year well enough, and showed improvement on a personal level along the way, handling themselves especially well when fronting the media.
It was a quiet but busy summer for the pair as they went about setting the example for their group and trying to prepare them for a fast start in 2013.
Unfortunately, only two games in, here we are in the same position again, asking the same questions of Melbourne Football Club’s approach.
Leading up to Round 2, the football world was looking for a positive response after an extremely poor first-up effort against Port Adelaide.
Instead that response came by way of a massive defeat at the hands of the Bombers.
The question must again be asked whether Trengove and Grimes are the right players to take the club forward.
They could be great leaders in the future, but right now I feel for them, trying to manage a club in such difficulty before either is even an established player in the competition.
The pressure on them will now be enormous. These two should be able to focus solely on their roles in the side and the development of their own games, without the worry of what to do next to inspire the team to victory.
Instead they are being asked to carry an entire club’s burden.
Leadership in a consistently losing side is one of the hardest jobs in football. Every club has had seasons stringing together loss after loss, some far more than others. It’s a real test of a leader’s ability.
Firstly it is about your relationship with the coach. It is easy for players and coaches to go into self preservation mode and worry about themselves. Collective leadership needs to reinforce the belief that you will turn the corner.
Tom Harley is one who comes to mind, in lifting the Cats from a struggling side to a multiple premiership team. This was based on accepting nothing but the best in terms of effort. If you didn’t measure up, you were challenged, then supported to improve and avoid those mistakes.
Scott Wynd and Chris Grant were two excellent captains I played under who led our group through tough times and out the other end. The standards they set made you want to improve and not let your skipper down.
It can change quickly. In 1996 the Bulldogs finished second last and lost our coach Alan Joyce. Like Melbourne this year, things had not been looking good since our first two rounds, when we lost by 87 points in Brisbane, then 131 against the Kangaroos.
In came a new board, with a new coach in Terry Wallace, and by 1997 we started improving rapidly and made the preliminary final. This came down to a new self belief, a new game plan, and improved skill development.
We did not play finals from 2001 to 2005 but during this time we always believed we were on the right path. There was excitement based around the younger players in the team, and we knew it would turn.
Eventually it did, and from 2006 we made finals four of the next five years.
I wonder if Melbourne’s players have that belief in their own teammates. It would be tough to maintain after recent results, but only they can really answer that question.
Regardless of the answer, it’s too big an ask of youngsters like Trengove and Grimes to be responsible for cultivating that belief.
Give them the latitude of being junior players, as by rights they should be. These are tomorrow’s leaders, and by the time they’re ready to step up, they’ll be better for it.
me, I like football
Guest
I agree, Why Jones has been overlooked shows how incompetent this club is.
david miller
Guest
Jones should be captain. Hes the only one who tries. At 20 trengrove is way too young and probably needs a few games in the mcgoos as he hasnt been performinfor the last 12 games. Grimes at least tries but not a stand out like a leader needs to be
Bogga
Guest
Appalling decisions years ago robbed the Demons of any continuous leadership knowledge. Leaders learn from those before them. Just take the Aus cricket team for example, Border-Taylor-Ponting. They all learnt from each other, under each other for many years. Just like Harley-Ling-Selwood Why did the Demons think that just by naming these two rookies as captains that they might magically develop leadership experience with nobody to impart that experience? Players learn to be captains. Some show good leadership skills from a young age, but you develop talent under tutelage, not independantly of the environment you're in. The next good Demon captain will not be in this generation of leaderless players, but in the next, the player that will learn from Grimes, Trengove and Viney's captaincies.
Ray
Guest
This article was featured on AFL 360 last night. Great to see the roar getting some form of mainstream coverage!
Handles
Guest
You are a legend Johnno. Even more so, since you agree with me! You wrote this article two days after I posted this on another thread... "A key decision that seems to escape scrutiny was the ridiculous move to appoint Grimes and Trengrove as captains. I felt at the time that this had alienated the mid-age group within the club, and nothing I have seen since then has made me think Neeld has got them back. Now neither of these two has developed much, arguably the decision to appoint them as captains has been detrimental to them as well. And how must this look to Jack Viney? He is clearly a natural leader, and a wonderful footballer. He could in theory play until he is 30 at the same club under the same captain(s)." Both Grimes and Trengrove are clearly good kids, and potentially could develop into A grade players, but they are not the right people to lead this team out of purgatory.
DingoGray
Roar Guru
Kudo's to you Jack! You are a stronger man than me! I would of been off that sinking ship with all the Rats!!!!!!!!!
Jack
Guest
I am a lifetime D's support and speak from the heart. Jack Grimes impressed me very greatly over the weekend. He fronted and made no attempt to hide his anguish. His face showed what every D's supporter felt. No spin, no media training, no bullshit. Should these young blokes been put in this position. No way. But he is the captain now and should stay the captain. He has the right to demand commitment from all players, from the coaching staff, from the management and from the fans. Back him and Jack Trengove. Add Jones as a co-captain. Your the skipper Jack. You have the authority. This leadership group are the making or breaking of the team. Not the administrators and the rest of the back room boys. They work for you and the players. Tell them so. If the skippers want someone dropped then he's dropped. This mess could break a young bloke. But I see something in Jack Grimes that tells me that this will be his making. Jack read about a young bloke named Alexander of Macedon. He was too young to lead as well, so they said. And the new players - the dud trades everyone is saying. How big are your hearts? You should lead the tackle count every week. Prove them all wrong. Make the mantra "hard at the ball" from here on in "hard at the ball". Wins don't matter. Table position doesn't matter. Leave bruises on the opposition. That's all the fans ask. Go the D's.
Trev
Roar Rookie
If they wanted co-captains I don't get why Jones wasn't included with them.
azzos
Guest
Jones should made captain immediately, but even he would want to show more get up and go than he did against Essendon. The footy dept manager and recruitment manager should also be sacked, but the players have to have a good hard look at themselves. Jack Watts especially. He isn't a little kid anymore. He wanted leadership last week, well put your own hand up and stop being a sheep.
Justin2
Guest
Did Melbourne just want "Yes" men to lead them on the field. Throw some young guys in, they will do what they are told and in the background the real ego's are at work. Certainly the place is a joke and the President and Board and CEO are right in the firing line. A clean-out would appear the only answer and even then the mistakes made may take years to correct.
DingoGray
Roar Guru
Johnno, You've mentioned Grimes and Trengove maybe not the right guys to lead the Dees forward, yet not at any stage are you prepared to nominate an alternative. I believe you could have Gary Ablett in this team and they still would be atrocious. Probably would of lost by 110 points rather 150 points. You just can't blame the two captains for the debacle that is Melbourne! Neeld's delusional off season trades and the President and CEO's lack of leadership are the one's that should be carrying the can for this rabble of a club.
Justin Curran
Roar Rookie
Fair call Johnno. Unfortunately the underlying problem here is an obvious lack of leadership from the senior playing group of which there are increasingly few. The team also underperformed under the old guard of Brad Green, Aaron Davey, Jared Rivers et. al. Melbourne are currently suffering as a result of letting too many senior players go over the last three to four years. Sure, they were never going to play in a premiership. But their hardened bodies and experience would at least shield some of the young kids while they developed their games. The only obvious alternative in my view for captain is Nathan Jones.
Winston
Guest
It seems like the onl person worthy of being captain is Nathan Jones. No other player in the team can put their hand on their heart saying they have given their 100% in every game they've played. I think if Jones came up to me and told me to pull my socks up I would be very very scared to not do it.