Who will replace Scott Pendlebury as Collingwood captain?
That is the question now surrounding the Magpies after Pendlebury stepped down from the role on Monday.
The club’s longest-serving skipper, who captained the club on a record 206 occasions from 2014 to 2022, will now hand over the reins.
Taylor Adams, Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe were Pendlebury’s vice-captains this year but his replacement is not in that particular group, according to Kane Cornes.
He believes the courageous and tenacious Brayden Maynard is the perfect player to take over from arguably the club’s greatest ever on-field leader.
“Now it’s over to the next crop,” he said on SEN’s Sportsday.
“I’m not sure it’s Taylor Adams, I’m certainly not sure it’s Darcy Moore and I don’t think it’s Jeremy Howe.
“I’d be handing it to Brayden Maynard, pretty quickly as well. I think he’s got captain written all over him.”
Adams has long been considered Pendlebury’s natural successor while Moore’s name has often been floated, but Cornes is firmly in the Maynard camp.
Pendlebury described Maynard as the club’s “spiritual leader” late in the 2022 season.
The decision to step down was a surprise to some with Cornes and co-host Gerard Healy both suggesting so, however, they did praise him for what he achieved in the job.
“It was a bit of a surprise to me, it must be said,” Cornes added.
Healy responded: “A surprise to me also, only because at the end of the season I thought he looked as though he was still hungry for the job.
“He’s had a good time to think about in the off-season. He’s got nothing to prove as a player or as a captain, he’s done it all.
“I think it’s a good thing for them to blood somebody else with having Pendlebury still at the club.
“From a club perspective it’s absolutely a good call.”
Cornes rates Pendlebury as one of the best captains we have ever seen.
“It is unbelievable his record and the captain that he has been,” he said further.
“One of the best we’ve ever seen and has done it with minimal fuss. One of the most intellectual players that I’ve seen on the ground.
“His record speaks for itself. I perhaps thought he may have taken some inspiration from Joel Selwood and tried to go out as a winning premiership captain that is rare for someone to do.”
Despite dropping the captaincy tag, Pendlebury will play on in 2023 into an 18th season in the black and white.