NEW MELBOURNE skipper James McDonald says that while he didn’t actively seek the captaincy, he considers it a tremendous honour.

Speaking at the captaincy announcement at the Southern Star wheel in Melbourne’s Docklands, McDonald said he was chuffed to be given the role despite not lobbying too hard for it.

“I wasn’t out handing lollypops to the players at training but why wouldn’t a player want to captain a football club? It’s a great honour and I think any player at some time in their career would want to captain a football club,” McDonald said.

McDonald said he wouldn’t change his style too much after sharing the captaincy with Cameron Bruce after David Neitz’s retirement last year.

“I’ll just try to play my football and lead by example. I’ll be putting all my energy and efforts into helping our young players develop faster and to help the club get back up where it should be. We’re also getting older players in the team to play an important role in that as well,” he said.

“I play in a different position to David Neitz and physically I’m not as big and intimidating as him so I think I’ll have my own way of leading.”

At 32, McDonald is the oldest player on Melbourne’s list but he hopes to be around for a while yet.

“It depends on my form and how the body holds up but at the moment I’m just concentrating on this year. I’d love to play for a couple more years but time will tell,” he said.

“I think I’m a good link, not just with the new players coming into the club but also the new staff. I’ve been here 12 years now and I can be a good link to bring all those groups together.”

While 2008 was a year to forget for the Demons, McDonald said there should be some improvement this year. Although he was hesitant to predict just how much improvement was in store.

“The members and supporters want results. It does take a bit of time, last year we hit the bottom but we’ve had a good pre-season so far. We started in early October, earlier than any other team in the competition and we’re trying to get the right systems in place, to help develop these young players.”