Collingwood has only had six captains since 1987, with their leaders often serving long and successful stints at the helm.
Those six include Scott Burns, who only served in the role for a year in 2008 as the transitional leader between Nathan Buckley (1999-2007) and Nick Maxwell (2009-2013).
Scott Pendlebury has skippered the club since 2014 and despite now being 33, hasn’t shown many signs of slowing down.
Nick Dal Santo wants to see Pendlebury play for as long as he possibly can, but wonders when Collingwood begins to work out who their next captain is and is also curious as to who that person might be.
Steele Sidebottom, Jeremy Howe and Taylor Adams served as the club’s vice captains in 2020, but the first two are already over 30, while Adams is now 27.
“I think they need to find a contingency plan for life after Scott Pendlebury being the captain. Not Scott Pendlebury the player,” Dal Santo told SEN Breakfast.
“He’s 33, which surprised me a little bit, he’s done everything you could ever ask for from a playing perspective both representing the football club and the AFL and the ambassador he is for the game, but he can’t be the captain forever.
“So who is the next one? It’s a huge responsibility and if you speak to anyone at Collingwood, it’s like the Australian Test captain, it’s the most important job in Australia.
“The next person that takes that role, Nick Maxwell was before Pendlebury, they’ve been strong leaders.
“Who’s the next one? They probably need a bit of time and prepping to find them.”
Jack Heverin believes Adams is the ready-made replacement should Pendlebury choose to hand over the reins.
“You speak to people at Collingwood and they will talk glowingly about Taylor Adams, his preparation, he ticks a lot of boxes,” Heverin said.
Pendlebury has now played the most games for Collingwood (316) after breaking Tony Shaw's previous record, while holding the mantle for most games captained (164) after surpassing Buckley last year.