Cassisi, 27, will serve a second year as skipper having taken over from club champion Warren Tredrea at the end of 2008, while Brogan and Surjan will act as joint vice-captains.
Brogan, 31, is the only player from last year’s nine-man leadership group, besides Cassisi, to retain his spot in 2010.
The changes to the leadership group reflect the input of the Power’s new leadership mentors, former national women’s basketball coach Jan Stirling and coach Mark Williams’ sister, Jenny.
The pair has been entrusted with the job of developing a more successful leadership program at Alberton.
As part of the new program, the players and coaches were subjected to psychological profiling to help identify potential leaders within the group.
Williams said the results of the questionnaires had pushed Cassisi, Brogan and Surjan ahead of the pack.
“It stands out that these three guys are the most dominant, most vocal, best communicators and are comfortable in their own skin as far as where they sit within the organisation and the AFL world,” Williams said on Friday.
“We’re in the infancy stage at the moment, but the new program has revealed that there’s great potential in the group. There’s been lots of consideration about each person’s role in the group and understanding how their role really does affect our results.
“A lot of things that haven’t happened in the past are starting to happen, like the great communication we’re seeing and the great care for each other.”
Sitting just below Cassisi, Brogan and Surjan is a second tier of emerging leaders.
Williams said the group, which includes onballer Travis Boak, defenders Alipate Carlile and Troy Chaplin and also second-year players Hamish Hartlett and Jackson Trengove, would be fast-tracked when it came to leadership.
“We thought without putting on any undue pressure on anyone else we’d work with them behind the scenes so that they’re ready to go in years to come,” he said.
“There’s probably a group of around 10 guys where we see the future of our club coming from and there will be extra time and effort put into them.”
Experienced players such as Tredrea, Chad and Kane Cornes, Daniel Motlop and Josh Carr will form another group, which will act as an unofficial support for Cassisi, Brogan and Surjan.
Port Adelaide’s new leadership group is also a reflection of the different paths players can take to get to the top.
Cassisi joined the club via pick No.50 in the 2000 NAB AFL Draft, Brogan started his AFL career as a rookie and Surjan, 24, was offered a lifeline in the 2004 Pre-season Draft.
Williams said he was hopeful the Power’s young players would look to the trio for inspiration for their own careers.
“Dom was selected at pick No.50 and these guys are people that most of the AFL didn’t want at one time,” he said.
“It really does give the young guys the view that, gee we can get somewhere. It’s all about hard work, desire and if you have goals that you really work towards, you can get anywhere - and that would apply for us as a club this year as well.”
Dom Cassisi is a $412,000 midfielder in this year's Toyota AFL Dream Team.
Jacob Surjan is a $251,500 defender.
Dean Brogan is a $315,900 ruck.
