THE BIGGEST surprise for Andrew McLeod atMonday night’s All-Australian ceremony wasn’t that Geelong had nine representatives, but rather,that he was chosen to captain the team.
McLeod, who has a won almost every medal andaward in the game during his 13-year AFL career, admitted he was “embarrassed”by the honour.
“I was standing on stage and then theysaid, ‘two-time premiership player,’ and I looked around and thought, ‘I wonderwho that is?’,” he laughed.
“It didn’t click at all, even when he said,‘two-time Norm Smith Medallist’, I was still looking around and then I thought,‘oh jeez’. It was a surreal sort of feeling and I was actually a little bitembarrassed”.
“It’s something you don’t expect whenyou’re in such esteemed company. I actually said to Triggy [Adelaide CEO StevenTrigg], ‘I think Brad Johnson will probably be the captain’, and he agreed.”
The 31-year-old superstar was given the topjob ahead of Johnson and other rival club captains Jonathan Brown and MatthewPavlich.
McLeod was Adelaide’s only representative in theAll-Australian side, but becomes the second Crow to be named captain of the team,behind the recently retired Mark Ricciuto.
The dynamic half-back was not a member ofthe Adelaide’sleadership group in 2007 and said he’d never “really aspired” to captain ateam.
“I don’t think you need a title to be aleader and that’s something I’m pretty big on. I like to let my actions do mytalking in terms of the way I lead and I’m happy doing what I do at the footyclub at the moment,” he said.
“It’s special for me to be able to followin someone like Roo’s [Ricciuto’s] footsteps.
“I was fortunate enough to captain mycountry in the International [Rules] series, which was pretty special, and alsothe Aboriginal All-Stars, which is something I hold in high regard.”