Carlton Supporters Club

I reckon even Army could be a smokie for the leadership group. Won some community awards...

Carlton Football Club has finalised its on-field leadership structure for 2017, with captain Marc Murphy to again steer a seven-man leadership group.

Veteran defender Kade Simpson has been named vice-captain for the third year overall, while 30-year-old Dennis Armfield comes into the group for the first time since his debut in 2008 for Carlton.

Patrick Cripps, Sam Docherty, Bryce Gibbs and Ed Curnow round out the Blues’ leadership group, who were elected by their peers on Tuesday.

Me too and I think he wont play much footy in 2017 too which highlights the importance of off field leadership, and how form and ability have little to do with whether or not a player is leadership material.

He has a part time coaching role with the Women's team, so you could be right about game time. Shame though - I liked seeing him running around.

Women's season will be over when the men's is kicking off, so he should be fully focused on the task at hand.

Fine with Murph being selected again but would have preferred a new younger VC selected.

Simmo is a loved and respected player no doubt but he will not be around for much longer - Would have loved to see dual VCs in Doc and Cripps.

But I'm trusting the club with their internal knowledge is making the correct call at this stage of those players careers.

 

 

Shawny my take on the next Captain or rather next crop of leaders is as follows. The leadership group under Bolts last year would have driven higher standards compared to previous years, they said as much in all the interviews. The next step in that evolution IMO is driving the younger players to strive and aspire to be leaders. Murph and Co. need to send messages, cryptically or otherwise, like "you want it? come and take it off me", "time to step up to the plate", etc. They need to foster a desire to replace them.

I think the key to this is the "leadership density" that Bolton talks about.  We had a leadership program through Leading Teams in Ratten's time then nothing under Malthouse.  Bolton poached Anthony Klarica to run an in-house leadership program and that suggests a much greater focus on leadership development than we've ever had.  Blokes who may never have aspired to anything more than getting a game will be discovering that they can lead.

Rather than the current leadership group sending messages, potential and up and coming leaders will be encouraged to send their own demands for leadership roles.

Apart from developing our future leaders, our leadership program and greater "leadership density" will ensure that the playing and coaching groups will have a much better understanding of what makes a good leader and will be picking the most able blokes to lead the club.