What makes a great captain?

[Matty76]

Following the recent scrutiny of Gary Ablett, Marc Murphy and Trent Cotchin in the media - coupled with the constant respect shown to the likes of Luke Hodge, Joel Selwood and Matthew Pavlich - I thought I'd ask everyone: what makes a great footy captain?

The AFL currently has 12 midfielders as captain (Rockliff, Murphy, Pendlebury, Watson, Selwood, Jones, Swallow, Boak, Cotchin, Ablett, Ward and Jack), 3 forwards (Walker, Riewoldt and Pavlich), 2 utilities (Hodge and McVeigh) and 3 defenders (Hurn, Murphy and Davis).

I would love to hear the thoughts of everyone on this - whether you are an avid fan like myself, a seasoned veteran of several years, or even if you are a youngster just starting out as a player or fan.

Looking forward to the responses!

 

[BLOWN8]

I was captain for my local footy team in my last year of playing in 2012, and have played a lot of games and the best captains I have ever played under and one I tried to be was one that would lead by example. You don't want a captain 'do as I say not as I do' type. Head over the ball, getting amongst it type of player is what inspires players. Hodge, Selwood, Jones and Riewoldt in my opinion are the best in the AFL at leading by example. Its really hard for us to judge how these current captains speak to their teams as we are not in the rooms before and after a game and during training but you would think that Hodge and Selwood are the perfect prototype captains, you can just tell by the direction they demand on field. I think the media have been too harsh on Ablett. Murphy and Cotchin probably need to lead by example better right now, not showing enough leadership. Its a lot easier for a captain to spray his own players if he is giving everything he possibly can but getting little to no support.