Melbourne to exorcise AFL Demons
Long-time Melbourne skipper David Neitz says he's no certainty to lead the AFL club in 2008, with the captaincy currently under review.
Neitz, already Melbourne's longest-serving skipper, has held the position since 2000 but a consultancy firm has been called in to assess the leadership approach and the 301-game veteran may be overlooked.
While he admitted he wanted to continue in the position as the club celebrates its 150th birthday, the 32-year-old welcomed the assessment.
"We don't know who's the captain or what's going to be happening," Neitz said on Friday at the launch of the club's new logo.
"We haven't made any formal decisions about who's going to lead the club or whether there's going to be a captain at all or what the make-up of that will be.
"I'm really comfortable with the process, I'm really enjoying it and I think it will be a great thing for our team and really spread our leadership around from oldest player to the youngest player.
"That's what the program is all about."
Neitz said he would also be comfortable mentoring a new young skipper in what is likely to be his final season.
But he didn't expect a decision on it until next year.
If Melbourne name co-captains next season, they will follow the lead of the Brisbane Lions and Sydney, who both had more than one captain last season.
Melbourne exorcised the demon from their new club logo and are hoping for good fortunes on the field after an injury-ravaged 2007 contributed to their 14th-placed finish.
The new logo harks back to a 1905 version, with the red and blue club colours and the words Melbournefc.
A special 150th badge will also be worn on the playing jumper next year.
Club chairman Paul Gardner said the club wanted to focus on its representation of the city of Melbourne rather than the nickname of the Demons.
However the club will still be known as the Demons and the mascot will be retained.
With the club looking to strengthen ties in China, Gardner said there was no truth the demon was removed because Chinese people objected to it.
"I think that's an urban myth, I'm not quite sure where the Chinese stand with demons but we didn't want to de-emphasise the demon, we wanted to emphasise the city," he said.
Starting his 17th pre-season with a modified training program, Neitz said the 150th birthday celebrations had given the club extra motivation.
"Every year's a big year in AFL football, but it's obviously going to be a massive year from a historical point of view," he said.
"It's our 150th year as a footy club, we're proud of our heritage as the oldest sporting club going around, so it's going to be a big year in a lot of ways.
"We've got a new coach, new footy manager, some new development coaches and some new players coming through the place so it's going to be an interesting year."
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