AS SOON as Jack Trengove walked into Mark Neeld's office yesterday he was hit with the news. Neeld extended his hand and said to the 20-year-old, "Congratulations, you are the youngest captain in AFL history."

"I was taken aback," said Trengove. "He (Neeld) just kept talking away and I just sat back there and tried to take it all in because, as you can imagine, it took a while to comprehend what he is actually saying."

Trengove managed to hear that he was not being expected to do the job alone.

Melbourne's coach had decided the path forward for his team was to choose co-captains. That meant 22-year-old Jack Grimes would also be appointed captain of the game's oldest club.

Neeld admitted that he never thought he would appoint co-captains but in the end he could not split the pair.

The news shocked Grimes, who has been a Demons supporter all his life, as much as his co-captain: "I woke up this morning and thought it all might have been just a dream."

The coach was certain the outcome was the right one for the football club.

"It's new. It's fresh. It's exciting," said Neeld.

Those words might seem like sizzle but this decision was all about substance. Although it is a bold move it is also a logical move. The only basis for such a decision is to evaluate its future consequences. What happened before the current coaching group arrived is irrelevant.

The pair of Jacks combined experience is 69 games. Grimes has played 32 games since making his debut in the last round of 2008. Trengove has played 37 games in his two years since being the No.2 selection in the 2009 AFL National Draft.

No-one doubts the duo's ability on what they have displayed in those appearances.

Grimes has always been touted as a future AFL captain by those who have watched him from close quarters while Trengove showed his commitment to the club when he moved to re-sign with the club while it was at its lowest point in August last year.

Trengove's response when asked about whether he had his eyes on the captaincy in December struck me at the time as the words of a natural leader. He said that if an individual was striving to become captain then his focus was in the wrong place. At today's press conference Trengove said he thought a leader needed to care about his teammates. That is a leader.

Another member of the new look leadership group Colin Garland was effusive in his praise of both his teammates. He said Grimes was the type of person at the club who was first into the place and last to leave. "His professionalism around the club is amazing," said Garland.

The defender said Trengove - who captained sporting teams while attending school at Prince Alfred College in South Australia and that state's Under-18 representative team - showed his leadership qualities from day one at Melbourne. "Since 'Trenners' walked in the door he has had that aura about him," said Garland.  

Importantly the coach was rapt with the quality of the young leaders:  "These guys are outstanding young men. Our aim, our challenge is to develop them into outstanding captains over time," said Neeld.

While youth will be a focus for many in assessing the decision it is pertinent to note that Melbourne's new director of football Greg Healy was aged 22 when appointed the Demons' captain in 1988. The team played in a Grand Final that season.

It's also worth noting however that the now third youngest captain in the game's history, Fitzroy's Haydn Bunton, relinquished the role after just two matches in 1932 citing an inability to combine the captaincy and his job roving. He returned to the job in 1936.

Trengove is not flustered about age as his languid response to the question about perceptions revealed. "A lot of people will question that and I will have my doubters but I could not really care a less at the moment," he said. "The club believes in me and the teammates believe in me, so that is all I need."

Of course, the elephant in the room today was the fact last year's captain, the 30-year-old Brad Green, was no longer in the job and not part of the leadership group.

Although Neeld's declaration of a blank canvas at the start of pre-season would have been a hint to the incumbent that he might not continue in the job the news would have remained difficult to hear.

Neeld's expression was compassionate when he was asked how hard it had been to deliver such news to Green the previous day. There was no tough guy act from the coach when he described the discussion.

"It was pretty hard," he said. "That's the hardest thing I have had to do so far, to sit down with a player who has nearly played 250 games and is the captain of an AFL club - and I sat face to face in the office yesterday and told him that he wasn't going to be captain of the club, harder for Brad to hear than me to deliver."

Green was not the only member of last year's leadership group missing, with the coach acknowledging Jared Rivers, Aaron Davey and Brent Moloney's efforts while on the leadership group.

He expects the quartet to continue to make a positive contribution. "I am extremely confident that these four players will support this group 100 per cent of the time in the best way they possibly can."

While Green would have been disappointed, his response at training at Casey Fields hours before the public announcement indicated he was going to be positive. He performed well in a scratch match playing up forward.

He can also look to Hawthorn's Shane Crawford and Geelong's Steven King as players who played in a premiership soon after being replaced as captains of their respective clubs. Green also tweeted his support for the two players this afternoon.

In this case, timing appears to have been everything.  

And the former skipper has lost nothing in the eyes of his teammates.

"He's been a great leader at the club and someone I have always looked up to since I have been at the club," said Trengove. "I still do to this day and that won't change at all."

But plenty of other things have changed. Melbourne has a new look and new leadership everywhere. The tough year that was 2011 is behind them and everyone is looking forward. The decision is right but it will inevitably be judged on the outcome.

For now, it is about the excitement generated within the game's oldest club.  

"When I first walked into the club I was pretty star-struck to be honest, to see all these blokes that I am now playing alongside. To think I'm captain of that club is amazing," said Grimes.