Goodes a good Swans co-captain: O'Loughlin
Michael O'Loughlin reckons his Indigenous All Stars skipper Adam Goodes should continue sharing leadership duties at Sydney rather than go it alone and nominated midfielder Jarrad McVeigh as a potential new co-captain of the Swans.
O'Loughlin, who will coach the All Stars side against Richmond in Alice Springs on Friday, appointed his former Sydney team-mate as skipper of the composite side.
Dual Brownlow Medallist Goodes was co-captain of Sydney for the last two years with midfielder Brett Kirk and key defender Craig Bolton.
With Kirk retiring and Bolton standing down, new Sydney coach John Longmire has the option of reverting to the more traditional single captain structure.
Longmire said he would announce a decision on the captaincy this month.
Geelong legend Graham Farmer and Port Adelaide's inaugural captain Gavin Wanganeen are among the few indigenous players to have captained an AFL team on their own for any length of time.
Goodes would appear to be far and away the outstanding individual candidate to lead the Swans.
With 276 games under his belt, he is only 28 matches away from eclipsing O'Loughlin's club record.
Nonetheless, O'Loughlin, who retired after the 2009 season, believed Sydney would be better off sticking to the co-captaincy system introduced several years ago under previous coach Paul Roos.
"I love it, the work rate gets shared, it's worked for Sydney," O'Loughlin told AAP.
"We won a premiership under it, we've been to another grand final under it.
"Everyone wrote us off not to make the finals last year and we made the finals under it, so they know what they are doing.
"I think it's a good concept. Unfortunately Craig (Bolton) has stepped down, he's just got to look after his body, get it right.
"Who they appoint will be interesting but I'd really like Jarrad McVeigh.
"He should be right up there and I just love the way he goes about his footy.
"He's got great leadership qualities and he does everything well."
O'Loughlin had no hesitation appointing Goodes as the All Stars skipper, even if he did get a bit of prompting.
"Adam was always going to be the captain, he would have been very upset if I didn't name him captain," O'Loughlin joked.
"He actually asked me 'can I be the captain?' and I said 'yeah why not'.
He's obviously the standout."
The other members of the All Stars' leadership group are Daniel Motlop, Graham Johncock and the injured Shaun Burgoyne, who has taken on an assistant coaching role.
O'Loughlin was excited about the emergence of several indigenous youngsters including Greater Western Sydney duo Curtly Hampton and Gerald Ugle and Gold Coast's Harley Bennell.
Post a comment about this article
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Becoming a member is free and easy, sign up here.