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It’s Hawthorn’s flag to lose and Jarryd Roughead’s Coleman. That’s the view of the club captains in the AFL’s annual poll of on-field leaders, which has thrown up Nat Fyfe for the 2015 Brownlow Medal and Geelong livewire Nakia Cockatoo as the Rising Star. The Hawks’ ferocious 2014 grand final win over Sydney is clearly still ringing in the ears of the AFL captains, with 11 captains nominating Hawthorn to return to the grand final. With every club hoping to lift the premiership cup, captains are asked who will make the grand final rather than who they believe they will win. Only two other sides were nominated to make the October 3 decider, with Sydney (4) and Port Adelaide (3) joining the Hawks as leading contenders in the eyes of the 18 captains. They’ve plumped for Roughead (7) over his former teammate Lance Franklin (3) for the league’s leading goalscorer, with Tom Hawkins and Jack Riewoldt also attracting two nominations. No captain might have nominated Fremantle for a grand final berth but Fyfe is the clear favourite for the Brownlow with four nominations. Gary Ablett, Travis Boak, Joel Selwood and Patrick Dangerfield also have two nominations. The NAB Challenge form of Cockatoo hasn’t gone unnoticed by captains, with the young Cat (4) favoured above Sydney academy product Isaac Heeny (3) and Jed Anderson (2) for the Rising star. Collingwood Collingwood didn’t feature prominently in the predictions but captain Scott Pendlebury believes their form has sown the seeds of what will be a successful AFL season in 2015. Collingwood began their pre-season matches with a morale-boosting defeat of premiers Hawthorn, before slumping to a 61-point loss to the Western Bulldogs last weekend. Their riches to rags build-up to the season, which begins with a trip to the Gabba to play Brisbane, has many predicting a dire year for the Magpies. But Pendlebury was keen on Wednesday to talk up the bright side of the club’s entire pre-season, which had included trips to Falls Creek, New Zealand and Tasmania. “We’ve got 42 or 43 blokes on the track so we’ve certainly got a healthy list,” he said. “Last year, we had about 28, 29 guys to pick from. “(Coach Nathan Buckley) was almost going to have to pull on the boots at one stage. It’s massive because, throughout the pre-season, you train so much ... to be able to have the whole list training and learning, it builds those bonds. “I feel like we’re a lot further developed than we were 12 months earlier.” Pendlebury’s assessment of the Magpies’ pre-season boils down to one key message: follow Buckley’s instructions. “In the NAB Challenge, we got a good snapshot of our best footy and our worst footy three weeks apart,” he said. “It just reinforces to the guys, if you don’t come to play AFL footy, you’ll get found out. On the other hand, if you come to play, you heed your structures and do the things coaches want you to do, it can be pretty rewarding.” |
AFL 2015 Captains Survey
The AFL has conducted its annual poll of 18 club captains. Votes are in brackets. Clubs to make top eight:
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Thursday, March 26, 2015
AFL 2015 Captains Survey
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