Essendon great Tim Watson says it’s an “outdated” view to think that clubs should only have one player assume the captaincy role.
It comes after Adelaide appointed Taylor Walker and Rory Sloane as co-captains for the 2019 season with Carlton, Melbourne, Sydney and GWS also deciding to go down the path of having joint skippers.
“I don’t think that you need to just have one captain. I think it works for some clubs,” Watson told SEN Breakfast.
“I think if you’ve got a standout individual it may be that person is right for the leadership at your club.
“But if you want to distribute the leadership over a number of people, and we’ve seen that work very successfully for some clubs, or you want to rotate the captaincy because that’s what you think you should do … I think it’s an outdated view that you need to have just the one captain.”
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Watson, a former captain of the Bombers, says it’s getting harder for one individual to handle the intense scrutiny of solely leading an AFL club.
“There’s more focus on that leadership role now than there has ever been before,” Watson added.
“There are so many people that have opinions that are voiced publicly now than ever before, which adds to the pressure of somebody
“If you want to distribute that pressure and you’ve got two people (Walker and Sloane) who are great candidates … it sounded logical to me.
“You’ve got two people that have got complimentary personality traits.”