JOSH Kennedy will captain West Coast against Gold Coast on Saturday, but coach Adam Simpson has confirmed the role would be rotated by up to five players for the remainder of the season.
The immediate retirement of Darren Glass on Thursday has left a leadership void at West Coast. The four-time All Australian and three-time club champion had been captain since 2008, leading the Eagles on 129 occasions.
Only club legend John Worsfold served a longer tenure as Eagles skipper in the club's history.
West Coast has two vice-captains in Kennedy and Scott Selwood, who have shared the duties in the three games Glass missed this season.
But Simpson revealed that others in the leadership group, including Matt Priddis, Shannon Hurn and Eric Mackenzie would be given an opportunity to lead the side before they make a decision on the captaincy for next year during the off-season.
"At the moment (Kennedy) will do it this week and you'd think our leadership group will share the role and we'll give opportunities to some of those guys who might fill the position next year," Simpson said.
"They're all pretty close in terms of where they're at in their careers and I think they're all looking forward to the challenge of spreading the load.
"The pressures of leading and performing are what we need to put our players through.
"So we'll find out a bit about our leadership and how they handle tossing the coin and doing the pre-match talk and speaking in front of the media.
"It's something some aren't all that comfortable with, but they'll learn and grow and we'll find out more by the end of the year."
Dean Cox has been rested this week ending a streak of 104 consecutive matches for the Eagles.
The coach believes the week off will freshen up his durable ruckman but he also conceded that Cox's future beyond this year is still a bit of an unknown.
"I don't think if you had asked me about Darren seven weeks ago I would have said he would be retiring yesterday," Simpson said.
"We'll see how Dean goes. He has a week off, but he trained really well yesterday. He always has a lot of energy around the club.
"We just think he has been a little bit off with his performance and he looks physically tired, but the week off may do him wonders."
Without Glass and Cox, the Eagles lose 554 games of experience this week. But they also enter a must-win clash with Gold Coast without another player with premiership experience.
Sharrod Wellingham has been dropped for the second time in a month. But the coach believes he has not been placed in permanent exile.
"He was sub on the weekend and you can't do much at three-quarter time when you're eight goals down.
"But the week before he was poor and it has been a build-up over a few weeks.
"I am not writing him off. It is just a part of his learning."
