Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley expects Darcy Moore to be a “fantastic” captain for the club.
Moore was announced as Collingwood’s 48th VFL/AFL captain on Wednesday as he assumes the role from veteran Scott Pendlebury.
Having coached the defender for the first seven years of his career, Buckley described Moore as a highly-intelligent young man that has a “great influence” on those inside the club’s four walls.
“I think Darce will be fantastic,” Buckley told SEN Breakfast.
“For me, I think it was a matter of whether he would want the role and whether he’d put his hand up.
“I think there’s a lot of things that there’s required to do which is a little bit cut and dry, there’s been an accepted way of leading or presenting and I don’t think Darcy will fall into that mould, he’ll do it differently.
“Obviously, he’s been able to get to that point and he’s clearly really passionate about the club.
“He has a great influence on people internally and he’s one of the most intelligent young men I’ve ever met.
“I have no doubt he’ll enlighten us into how he’s going to lead and how the club will carry itself over the next, probably five to six years really.”
While Moore will be the face of the club, Buckley is confident that he won’t be a “one-man band” as a sole leader.
With former captain Pendlebury to mentor the new skipper, Buckley says Moore will be “well supported” by the veteran and those surrounding him in the leadership group.
“Everything people say about Pendles is right,” Buckley said.
“He strikes the perfect balance between someone who just wants to win, not at all costs, but he just wants to be great at whatever he does, and he has great patience to stay with an issue, a problem or a person for long enough, which is a really important trait of great leadership and mentorship.
“But it’s not just Pendles, there Jeremy Howe - who would’ve been a really strong candidate for the next couple of years for the captaincy - Taylor Adams and Steele Sidebottom, who has been in the leadership group for a long time, and Brayden Maynard who is a young leader there.
“There’s a lot of leaders, Tom Mitchell comes across as a Brownlow Medallist that has been in the game for a long time, he’ll bring some experience and perspective as well.
“It’s not a one-man band (at) Collingwood, there’s a lot of depth and breadth in the leadership group and Darcy will be well supported with what he’s going to be asked to do.”
Moore’s first official game as captain of Collingwood comes in Round 1 when the Magpies face the Cats at the MCG on March 17.