MELBOURNE has added three players to its leadership group, following the retirement of Mitch Clark and the long-term injury to former co-captain Jack Trengove.

The Demons have named key forward Chris Dawes, versatile tall Lynden Dunn and experienced midfielder Daniel Cross as official leaders.

They join existing leadership group members: co-captains Jack Grimes and Nathan Jones, and key talls James Frawley and Colin Garland.

Mahoney said Dawes, Dunn and Cross had been valuable contributors to the group already and were important inclusions.

“In recent times, we’ve made some additions to our leadership group, based on the retirement of Mitch Clark and Jack Trengove being out for the year with his injury, so we’ve added Chris Dawes, Lynden Dunn and Daniel Cross to the group,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

“At the start of the year with the voting that the players did, those three players were the next three in line for the voting.

“We decided to limit the group to six rather than nine at the start of the year, but with the recent injury [to Trengove] and retirement [to Clark], these three experienced players have been added to further assist the remaining leaders.

“We just felt our remaining leaders needed some help and they (Dawes, Dunn and Cross) were the three best candidates. They’re great additions to the leaders who remain in the leadership group.”