Friday, 3 February 2012
Mark Neeld has admitted that telling Brad Green he would no longer be captain of the club was the hardest thing he has had to do in his short time as Melbourne coach.
Neeld took the captaincy off Green on Friday after just one year in the job and installed inexperienced duo Jack Trengove and Jack Grimes as the Demons' new co-captains.
The move has ensured Trengove has become the youngest skipper in the history of the VFL/AFL at 20 years and 154 days old.
As tough as it was breaking the news to Green, who has played 241 matches for Melbourne, Neeld defended the decision by saying it was in the best interests for the club.
"It was pretty hard," Neeld said of his talk with Green.
"That's the hardest thing I've had to do so far, to sit down with a player who has nearly played 250 games, is a captain of an AFL club and I sat face-to-face in the office yesterday and told him that he wasn't going to be captain of the club."
"Harder for Brad to hear than me to deliver but that's part of the job and I've been put here by the board and ultimately by the supporters to do what I think is the best thing for the Melbourne Footy Club."
"Right now, in my opinion, the best thing for the Melbourne Footy Club is to have this eight-member leadership group with Jack and Jack as co-captains."
Clint Bartram, Mitch Clark, James Frawley, Colin Garland, Mark Jamar and Nathan Jones completed the leadership group.
Neeld also denied the instalment of Trengove and Grimes, who have played a combined total of 69 matches between themselves, suggested there was a leadership vacuum at the club or that the appointments were the coach's way of implementing a fresh start under his reign.
Neeld originally wanted one captain but revealed that Trengove and Grimes could not be split.
"Both of them (have) outstanding leadership qualities and couldn't be split by their peers and similarly with the coaches," Neeld said.
"I only have their actions and behaviours over the last four-and-a-half months to go by and they've been terrific."
"I expect them to continue to act in that manner and grow and develop their leadership skills over time, I've got no doubt that they'll do it really well."
Their tender ages (Grimes is 22) didn't faze Neeld either, saying: "I'm not a fan of using birth certificates with leadership, it's about the way they're going to go about it."
Trengove and Grimes both described being named co-captains as an 'honour' but the former admitted he didn't know what his strengths were yet as a leader.
"It's still developing and I'm trying to learn new things every day," Trengove said.
"It'll develop over time but I'm all about just trying to help out my team-mates ... I'll just be doing everything possible to improve every player on the list."
Like Trengove, Grimes said he wasn't the most vocal player on the list and he would let his actions do more of the talking for him.
"I'm definitely the not the loudest bloke in the team and I don't really plan to change that at all," Grimes said.