FORWARD Matt Austin and decorated onballer Myles Sewell will share North Ballarat Roosters' captaincy.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This will be the first season the Roosters have shared the role since the 2002 Victorian Football League season, when the club had a rotating captaincy.
Austin and Sewell will lead the team together for the first time on Saturday in a practice match against reigning VFL premier Footscray at Eureka Stadium.
They will formally be presented to club supporters in the team's jumper presentation and season launch.
Roosters coach Gerard FitzGerald said the shared captaincy was a natural fit for the new playing group.
FitzGerald said Austin and Sewell were each strong candidates and should complement each other - Austin, a former Brisbane Lion, is Ballarat-based and can lead the club's community presence while Sewell, the 2009 JJ Liston medallist and three-time VFL premiership player, has a particularly commanding presence on the field.
Highly respected midfielder Lachie George will be vice-captain with young guns Tony Lockyer and James Keeble in the Roosters' leadership group.
FitzGerald said players were appointed under a leadership program, working with premiership captain Shaune Moloney, under which aspiring leaders self-nominated and were voted on by their peers.
"I'm really proud of the process they go through. It's genuine empowerment for the players telling us who they believe should lead based on behavious and actions," FitzGerald said.
Austin and Sewell succeed retired captain Michael Searl, who led the team the past two seasons.
Meanwhile, the Roosters are approaching a practice match with Footscray as a massive test for how they want to play this season.
Returned AFL ruckman Orren Stepheson will play his first inter-club hit-out while Sewell and fellow headline recruit Andrew Hooper are also set for big minutes after half games against Coburg last week.
The Roosters will sport five North Melbourne-listed players and the Bulldogs a strong line-up as players push to be ready for AFL round one.
NORTH BALLARAT v FOOTSCRAY at Eureka Stadium, Saturday 2pm
ROOSTERS - B: Blake, Curnow, Lockyer; HB: Schache, Boseley, Warren#; C: Bacon, Rippon, Tsitas; HF: Hoy, Durdin*, Amderson; F: Hooper, Preuss#, Nahas*; R: Stephenson, Dumont*, Sewell: Inter: Lukich, Cassidy, Powell, Keeble, Staley.
BULLDOGS: Hunter, Shea, Hrovat, Campbell, Roberts, Stevens, Jones, Bicer, Newton, Keras, Jamieson, Greenwood, W Hayes, Fogarty, Fort, Iaccarino, Buchanan, Jensen, Russell, Wallis, Barry, Grabowski, Morton, Johnson.