The Collingwood Football Club is on the hunt for a new captain for 2023.
News broke on Monday that Collingwood’s longest-serving leader in Scott Pendlebury has handed over the reins, leaving a gaping vacancy that is yet to be filled.
Collingwood premiership captain Nick Maxwell, who Pendlebury replaced in 2014, has named the three players who he believes are front of mind.
Maxwell says Darcy Moore, Taylor Adams and Jeremy Howe – all of whom are vice-captains – are the three that have stepped up over the last 18 months.
“There’s a few of them (players) that could easily do the job and I think the timing of this is really good because you’ve got a whole pre-season to have a real look at it,” Maxwell told SEN Mornings.
“There’s a few guys there in Jeremy Howe and Taylor Adams who are the more experienced guys, Darcy Moore over the last 18 months has really stepped up in his desire to take on leadership roles.
“So I think they are probably the three for mine that are on the front of my mind when I look at it.
“They’d be the guys for me.”
If it’s not to be those three, could defender Brayden Maynard be a perfect fit?
THE PENDLEBURY REPLACEMENT CANDIDATE WHO HAS “CAPTAIN WRITTEN ALL OVER HIM”
“He (Maynard) is a real leader in the way he goes about it with his toughness and he makes them around him stand taller,” Maxwell added.
“Again there are so many different types, there are those who are like that who are more about that performance and take my teammates with me.
“But then there is a lot of other layers the club have to consider like being able to go to a corporate function and speak to hundreds of people and being able to be in the media regularly, so there is a lot of layers to it.
“It’s also not just about the person that has a C next to their name, you need the right people around them and I think who is ever honoured with getting the captaincy of Collingwood are going to have some really strong people around them that can help support them.
“Because no one is the perfect captain, no one has every box ticked so I think those guys will be able to support whoever that person ends up being.
“And also you don’t know until they are actually in the seat, obviously there was a lot of doubt when I took over and a lot of people were like, 'well what are they (Collingwood) doing?', and me included.
“But I had the ability to grow into the role and I was lucky that people saw enough in me and trusted me enough to able to take on that role and take on that grow.”
Pendlebury captained the club on a record 206 occasions from 2014 to 2022.