MELBOURNE has named a revamped six-man leadership group for 2016, with captain Nathan Jones the only member retained from last year.
Coach Paul Roos announced the new-look squad at Melbourne’s season launch at the MCG on Wednesday night.
Coming into the leadership group for the first time are Bernie Vince, Jack Viney, Tom McDonald and Max Gawn, with Colin Garland returning after opting out of it last year.
Vince, Viney and McDonald finished first, second and third respectively in last year’s best and fairest award, while Gawn’s second half of the 2015 season was outstanding, after he nailed the No.1 ruck position. Garland was regarded as one of Melbourne’s most consistent performers last year.
Defender Lynden Dunn, who was vice-captain last year, former co-captain Jack Grimes, key forward Chris Dawes, rebounder Heritier Lumumba and the now retired Daniel Cross are missing from last year’s leadership group.
Vince, who won Melbourne’s best and fairest award in 2015, has been a fine player for the club since joining from the Adelaide Crows at the end of the 2013 season.
The 21-year-old Viney, stormed home to finish second in the Keith ‘Bluey’ Truscott Memorial Trophy last year – and one vote shy of Vince – after missing six matches with a broken fibula.
McDonald, 23, has been one of Melbourne’s most consistent performers in recent years, missing just eight matches since he made his AFL debut in round 23, 2011.
Although Gawn is the least experienced in terms of AFL matches – he enters the season with 39 games – his leadership has grown considerably over the summer, on the back of his breakout second half of last season. Already his NAB Challenge form has been particularly impressive.
Garland has been a long-serving member of the red and blue and one of the club’s most reliable players in recent years.
It will be Jones’ second successive season as sole skipper, after he made his debut in the job as a co-captain with Grimes in 2014.
No vice-captain has been named this year.
2016 Melbourne leadership group
Nathan Jones (captain)
Colin Garland
Max Gawn
Tom McDonald
Bernie Vince
Jack Viney
