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When the chair umpire calls “game, set and match” at the end of the Australian Open men’s final, the sporting focus in this country immediately turns to footy season.
While some think a year of AFL exists only to provide supercoach scores and fantasy football leagues, the passion of club supporters runs deep. To paraphrase the great Liverpool player manager of the 1960s and 70s, Bill Shankly – Football isn’t a matter of life and death. It’s much more important than that.
The naming of club captains and leaderships has been a focus this week, with Collingwood and Melbourne both cannily announcing changes to their official leadership positions in a time devoid of meaningful sport to capitalise on the amount column inches they can gather.
A change of captain brings fresh hope to a supporter group, as it happens more often than not at a club that is either struggling or on the slide.
No club has done their best to redefine ‘struggling’ over the last few years than Melbourne. Everyone associated with the club has led a pitiable existence during this time, with the stench of rot and decay lingering over every on-field passage of play and off-field decision.
The first step towards apparent recovery was with the AFL secondment of new CEO Peter Jackson, who in turn brought a modern day messiah to the club in Paul Roos. Demon supporters who hadn’t allowed themselves the luxury of hope began to wonder if they could see some light amid the darkness.
Roos, relying on his own instincts and proven philosophy, traded and drafted as he saw fit. He prefers to focus on mature, under-valued players instead of teenagers, believing the benefit of maturity and experience, even if it is only a few years, outweighs the hit-or-miss nature of youthful talent and exuberance.
Previous coach Mark Neeld opted for a youth-led captaincy program, throwing Jack Trengove and Jack Grimes to the wolves. Through no fault of his own, Trengove has found leading the side beyond him, and has been a shadow of his playing self. Grimes has fared better on the field, albeit primarily in an outside capacity.
Given Paul Roos’ love of grunt, wholeheartedness and sacrifice for the team, as epitomised by Brett Kirk in his Sydney days, Nathan Jones was always going to be his captain at Melbourne, and will stand alongside Grimes in that position.
Jones eats contested footballs for breakfast, often with a sprinkling of concrete flakes on top, and was one of very few players to enhance his reputation under Neeld, embodying a never-say-die spirit while too many teammates embodied never-say-live.
New coach, new players, new captain. Suddenly, the Demons best 22 looks a lot more competitive than the rabble that was produced over the last two seasons in particular.
Collingwood are the opposite of Melbourne in many ways, as successful on the field as the Dee’s have been abysmal, and supported by an ever-growing and thriving band of members and fans.
But while the Pies are judged by a higher standard, and have played finals in every year since 2006, they have actually slipped in ladder position every season since their 2010 premiership, culminating in a humiliating elimination final loss in 2013, and a humbling eighth-placed finish.
Nick Maxwell was a divisive captain in his time at the helm, cherished by Collingwood supporters and those inside the club who admired his courage, leadership and direction, while simultaneously being mocked and ridiculed by opposition fans (and sometimes players) for being soft, talentless and unaccountable.
For mine, he was vastly underrated by the football public at large, and everyone should be so lucky to have a man of his character at their club. The Pies new skipper, Scott Pendlebury, is underrated by exactly no-one, and is widely regarded as the second best player in the competition.
While many are aware of his skill, grace and poise with the ball in hand, and in awe of his ability to perform at his best on big occasions, some will question how he will approach the job as captain.
Anyone who read Peter Ryan’s 2009 book, Side By Side: A Season With Collingwood, will rest assured that he is the right man for the job. Never has anything been more certain than Pendlebury taking over the captaincy reins from Maxwell once he relinquished them.
The Magpies won a flag in 2010 largely off the back of a wave of younger players stepping up to take over from the more experienced hands, and a similar changing of the guard has taken place in the last two seasons, with many veterans no longer a part of the club, and some exciting youngsters acquired through the draft and trade table.
Scott Pendlebury will lead the new generation, forging a new direction with coach Nathan Buckley, and we can expect them to rise again off the back of his appointment.
The Lions have been lying dormant in no man’s land over the last few seasons, and it is up to new skipper Jed Adcock to be the playing face of leading them back to relevance.
Few players over the last decade have cast a larger shadow over their club in particular, and the competition in general, than Jonathon Brown has in his time at Brisbane, including seven years as captain.
Brown’s will be a hard act to follow, but the no-frills Adcock is the perfect replacement – a tough, hardened, professional defender with over ten years of senior experience to call upon, unlikely to be fazed by the higher pressure his new role will demand.
Whether he can lead the club into the finals during his years at the helm remains to be seen, and the Brisbane list has many question marks surrounding it, but supporters are entitled to be hopeful that the changing of the guard will be a positive one.
Ryan Griffen had a career season in 2013, elevating his already elite standing into becoming one of the top handful of midfielders in the competition. Off such a base does he inherit the captaincy of the Western Bulldogs in 2014, taking over from long term skipper Matthew Boyd.
The Dogs plumbed the depths of despair in a Round 14 loss to Melbourne last year, but rebounded strongly to win five matches in the run home, including three of their last four games. From a list that was going nowhere to one on the rise, Griffen is the perfect choice to take the helm.
However, there is a cautionary tale for him in the 2013 seasons of Trent Cotchin, Marc Murphy and possibly Andrew Swallow. All three were new captains last year, all three were arguably coming off career best seasons, and all three produced a significantly lower output once they were the man tossing the coin.
Hopefully Griffen can be more in the Gary Ablett or Jobe Watson mould who, despite being superstars already, both went to new levels again in their first year of captaincy. One senses the Bulldogs will be a side of steady incremental gains rather than exploding up the ladder, and the quietly spoken Griffen will provide both flash and substance during this time.
Pre-season is the most wonderful time of year for over 50% of supporters, even if most of them don’t know it yet. Some clubs will unexpectedly crash and burn, while others will be worse than their supporters imagine. But now is the time of undiluted positivity, hope and expectation.
This is especially true for teams that have had a change in their leadership positions, with each one potentially the key to unlocking the formula to a dizzying rise up the ladder. Collingwood and Melbourne fans in particular have more reason to dream than most.