NORTH Melbourne veteran defender Jack Ziebell has replaced seven years of Kangaroos captaincy with an AFLW coaching role as he takes the next step in his football path.
Ziebell passed the baton over to Jy Simpkin and Luke McDonald, who have had a difficult first season to handle, including coach Alastair Clarkson's leave period, Tarryn Thomas' off-field issues and a now 14-game losing streak.
"It's been enjoyable, actually. I've loved watching the way 'Jyza' and 'Lukey' have gone about their leadership. I've seen in close quarters over the past few years how they've developed firstly as players, and secondly - and probably more importantly - as leaders," Ziebell told AFL.com.au.
"They've been unreal, and our group loves the boys and those two. They're setting great standards at training, and I know that's not correlating to wins right now, but it's setting a terrific platform for our club to springboard the second half of this year into next year."
The idea behind a transition period while Ziebell was still playing was built from the 32-year-old's own experience in the early days of his captaincy.
"That was part of my thoughts on handing over. I was lucky enough, when I had the captaincy, that Andrew Swallow stuck around for 12 months, I think it was, when he finished up," he said.
"The number of times you just ask little questions and have conversations about how you would deal with certain scenarios that you haven't found yourself in before – it's priceless. The boys use me as much or as little as they like.
"We've had some conversations and will continue to do so, and I'll be a sounding board for them, but it's their team and they need to do things their way as well, so I'm careful not to intrude too much."
Two-thirds of the way through the season, and the Roos are yet to improve on last year's two-win season.
The last few years have been such a lean patch, star key defender Ben McKay has won just seven matches across his 64-game career (having missed the two this year through injury).
"I think in our young players are our biggest area of improvement, to be completely honest with you. The last three or four years, we've probably had a gap in our list, where our young guys probably haven't come through and taken control of our senior team," Ziebell said.
"This year, we've obviously got a few more games into a few more players who are going to be really important for us going forward. You add a couple of guys like Harry Sheezel and George Wardlaw, and a couple of their mates like Blakey Drury and Cooper Harvey, the young guys coming through have been outstanding.
"Will Phillips as well, who's had a real horror run with injury and missing pretty much 18 months of his first two years of footy, to see what he's able to do as a footballer as well is really exciting.
"It shows the pieces of our puzzle are there, so it's just about gluing them all together and making sure we can keep the boys on the park and playing consistently over a period of time, and I think those wins won't be too far away at all."
Ziebell has joined the club's AFLW team as a specialist development coach focusing primarily on midfield craft and skill development, in a look to his future beyond playing.
"I've got a bit of a passion for coaching. I've played a lot of footy in my time, this is my 15th season at AFL level and I'm probably closer to the end of my career than the start, I can safely presume," he said.
"I've been thinking about life after football and been speaking to a few people around the club, especially 'Crock' (senior AFLW coach Darren Crocker), he thought it would be a good thing for me to jump in and test the waters with the girls this pre-season and throughout the year."
