Kane Cornes believes the GWS Giants have taken the easy way out by appointing three co-captains.
The Giants confirmed on Friday that they have added Toby Greene and Josh Kelly as official captains to stand alongside current skipper Stephen Coniglio.
Cornes feels such a decision indicates that GWS has failed to make a “hard decision” by appointing Greene as standalone skipper following Coniglio’s woes since he took the role from Callan Ward and Phil Davis in 2019.
“It’s a club that has been too scared to admit that they made a mistake by appointing Stephen Coniglio as the captain in the first place,” Cornes said on SEN Breakfast.
“That’s fine, you can make a mistake. The easiest thing to do is to revert the damage that’s been caused from making that mistake and fix it as quickly as you can.
“But they’re going to let it linger and it’s a club that smacks of not wanting to make a hard decision.
“Three captains and one of those is a player who at this stage we’re not 100 per cent certain that he’s in their best 22. They don’t even play him in the midfield, they’re going to shunt him to half-forward and he’s the captain still.”
Does it hurt the Giants to name three co-captains? Does it do them any harm?
“I think it does,” Cornes added.
“It sets the tone for a club that is looking to keep everyone happy. I think that was the case when they first appointed Stephen Coniglio. They thought about having co-captains there. Ward and Davis had done a great job.
“Coniglio wanted it on his own by all reports and they did that to keep him happy. It’s a club that is trying to please everyone. You can’t please everyone.
“When you have the figurehead of your club who is the obvious single leader (Greene), it becomes confusing and it just makes things more complicated.
“I think it frees up Stephen himself to try and get his footy career back on track without having the added burden of trying to co-captain or triple captain this club.
“It’s just a soft decision, it really is.
“Leon Cameron needed to make a hard call there, he needed to make a coaches call on this one and just say, ’Nah, we had a crack at it, Steve, and it didn’t work, we want you to focus on getting your body and form right. Toby Greene is the obvious captain for this group, he leads by example, the players rally behind him, he’s going to be the captain’.
“And if you don’t like it, it’s a team sport. We’ve seen clubs make hard calls like that in the past that have down wonders for the footy club.”
Cornes has also questioned the leadership qualities of reigning Kevin Sheedy Medallist Josh Kelly.
While he acknowledges that Kelly is a fine footballer, and concedes he doesn’t see what goes on behind closed doors, he does not detect a “captain’s aura” enveloping the smooth-moving midfielder.
“Josh Kelly is a nice footballer, he’s popular among the group, he’s professional, he’s a great human and does everything right,” he said.
“But he’s not a captain, is he? Granted we don’t see it behind the scenes.
“90 per cent of leadership is what you do on game day. That’s what it is.
“He’s a good, consistent footballer, but is there anything you’ve seen from him to suggest he’ll be one of the great captains in the AFL?
“I don’t think he has the captain’s aura, no I don’t.”
The three-captain model has worked well for the Sydney Swans who have a history of appointing joint leaders, dating back to 2006 when Leo Barry, Brett Kirk and Barry Hall assumed shared responsibilities.
Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker and Dane Rampe have been in the role together since the 2019 season after two years of Kennedy as sole skipper.