THEY might look similar from the shoulders up and have comparable traits, but Scott Burns is determined to ensure the Magpies are led by a different type of leader from Nathan Buckley.

For starters, Burns will not let his fair hair and chiselled features influence comparisons to the club's former skipper while on the field.

"I'll have my shorts down and I won't have my shorts up around my ribcage," the 33-year-old joked.

But the way the veteran onballer dresses on match day will not be the only glaring difference from the man that led Collingwood for the past eight seasons.

While Buckley was a dominant leader who sat atop a structured leadership system for the larger part of his days as captain, Burns will be more about sharing his role with those underneath him.

At veteran status and unsure of how long he'll be able to keep playing, Burns sees a key plank of his new role as  mentoring those who’ll follow.

And his experience, coolness and professionalism – all reflected when he sat between coach Mick Malthouse and club president Eddie McGuire on Thursday afternoon – is why he emerged as the logical choice.

"When Bucks was captain in the early days, we had to have hierarchy then [because] we didn't have the depth or leadership underneath," Burns said.

"Thanks to Jimmy (James Clement) and Lica (Paul Licuria) and Bucks in the last few years, and also off the field with blokes like 'Richo' (development coach Alan Richardson), we've been able to develop the younger guys.

"I really see my role as more of empowerment not so much standing up in front of the group telling it how things should be done. It's more about trying to get them to take responsibility for themselves and following Mick's plans."

Burns described his path to captain as "evolution" while Malthouse described the decision as being based on the "value of the person".

McGuire said Burns would be the "captain of the club and not just the side".

It was a captaincy announcement without the star feature waxing lyrical about the greatest honour being bestowed upon him nor about how he has finally achieved a lifelong goal.

It was more about how Burns, who admitted he had already resigned himself to the fact captaincy would never fall to him with Clement the logical Buckley successor, hoped to set the side up for times beyond his playing days.

As Burns sat in front of his vice-captain Josh Fraser and leadership group members Scott Pendlebury, Nick Maxwell and Tarkyn Lockyer, it was clear to see why the club elected the experienced hat to lead the club into a new post-Buckley era.

Malthouse spoke of how Burns previously removed himself from a leadership role, in order to allow a new crop of talent to emerge.

"He came to me and said: ‘I don't think I'll last any longer than Bucks, he'll captain the club until he goes, therefore I'm going to step aside and give some other people perhaps to come in underneath to support Nathan but more importantly, to learn the trade’," Malthouse said. 

"He was wrong in one area because he outlasted Nathan and had we known what the future held in front of us, Scott would have been part of that leadership group all the way through.

"We lost nothing by him stepping down because he then came underneath and was able to join in with the rest of the player group and provide support on issues."

If anything, the calibre of Burns's character was emphasised in that reflection. And, the fact the veteran is set to play between "65 and 85 per cent of games" and isn't a surety to always start on the ground, says even more.

"A leader can only lead so much. It is up to the playing group as well," Malthouse said.

"These are the testing times for the Collingwood football club; when you lose three players who have collectively won 10 Copeland Trophies and had massive respect within the football community.

"They've left our football club and we've got to re-establish that leadership within the public's eye through the people that we put in."

Those "people" stood together on Thursday, in Collinwood's new-look leadership group, with Burns pledging to not only plan for the future, but embody the club's most important people.     

"It's a terrific honour, not only for what the club stands for, but you know you've got all the supporters each week to come and support us," Burns said.

"I'm not only representing the players at some certain things, but I'm also representing them."