The captaincy

[lennyhayes77]

At the start of this year, when Roo was named captained, i was relatively sceptical and cynical about the appointment. as much as a superstar as he is, i thought that lenny hayes had shown that he was capable of leading the side, and was the obvious choice for a stand alone captain.

i was also cynical, in the sense that i thought perhaps they had given roo the captaincy to keep him ingrained at the club, and when 2010 and the GC came knocking, he would have less reason to leave.

however, i am happy to say that both assumptions were wrong. nick riewoldt has been the most fantastic choice for captain, and, i believe probably unlucky not to lead the AA team.
his performance throughout the season has been nothing short of spectacular, and his last 10 rds this season have been unbelievable, almost single-handedly pulling us into the top 4.

if he continues to play like he has this year, and we continue to see improvement in our 'bottom 6' like raph in the last month, i dont think our window has shut at all.

[matrix]

ok i dont think he is a bad captain at all.
what i do think is if he wasnt captain...then a little bit of pressure might be lifted off his shoulders.
he is the face of the club, THE target up forward, PLUS the captain....i think its too much.

[stmac35]

He is under a lot of pressure, but he's older and better able to handle it than he was in '05 (appointed against all advice - I'm told GT was informed that he was far to immature and incapable of the captaincy when he proposed it). But he did well this year.
But he does need to extra support up front.