Hawthorn could rotate the captaincy in Ben McEvoy’s absence despite star midfielder Jaeger O’Meara stepping up both times this year.
O’Meara served as skipper in rounds 1 and 3, with McEvoy firstly in the AFL’s health and safety protocols as a close contact before suffering a neck fracture at training last Thursday.
That injury is set to sideline the 32-year-old ruckman until the second half of the season, meaning there will be plenty of leadership opportunities for others.
The Hawks never released an official leadership group, only confirming that McEvoy would be captain for the second year in a row.
O’Meara was the vice-captain the past two seasons, with Jack Gunston, Tom Mitchell, James Worpel and Liam Shiels rounding out the 2021 leadership group.
McEvoy has also acknowledged James Sicily’s and Will Day’s leadership qualities.
There is a good chance someone from that group could succeed McEvoy next year and O’Meara said Hawthorn wanted to share the load under first-year coach Sam Mitchell.
“We’ve flattened the leadership curve of the club, in terms of our playing group and our coaching departments, so we’re hearing a lot of different voices you wouldn’t necessarily have heard in years before,” O’Meara said.
“(McEvoy and I) will work really strongly together and he’s got a fair bit of time away from footy, which is unfortunate, so, hopefully, he can rest up and get himself right.
“But you’ll probably see someone else standing in this (captaincy) position before Ben’s back, because we want to give some other guys some opportunity.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s another leader who jumps up in the next few weeks and takes the captaincy role before Ben gets back as well.”
The captaincy opportunity is a source of pride for O’Meara, who has long been touted as a skipper-in-waiting.
“It means a lot. I think this is my fourth year in the leadership sort of space at the club and it’s a really proud moment,” he said.
“I’m a kid from a small town in Dongara, Western Australia. So to be able to say that I’ve captained a couple of games at the Hawthorn footy club is something I’ll look back on and be really proud of.”
The Hawks will try to improve to 3-1 on Saturday when they face fellow fast-starter St Kilda but O’Meara said any finals talk was premature.
“We’re nowhere near where we need to be, to be able to play finals footy yet, but we want to build a brand that will stand up in finals,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do and our first quarter against Carlton was obviously not the way that we want to play, and we’re going to have to be a lot better than that to beat St Kilda this weekend.”
Hawks’ deputy captain hopes Cyril rift can be fixed
Stand-in Hawthorn skipper Jaeger O’Meara is “saddened” to hear of former teammate Cyril Rioli’s experiences of racism at the club and hopes the Hawks can repair the fractured relationship.
But O’Meara declined to take a position on whether under-fire president Jeff Kennett should immediately stand down despite Rioli refusing to return until the outspoken chairman is gone.
Kennett is expected to move on quickly once his successor is found.
“That’s not up to me,” O’Meara said of Kennett’s tenure.
“I’m a pxjmtzywlayer and I’m the captain of the footy club at the moment while Ben (McEvoy)’s out, but I’ll leave those decisions up to board level. That’s not for a player to decide.”
Coach Sam Mitchell and head of football Rob McCartney addressed O’Meara and the rest of the Hawthorn players on Saturday morning about Rioli’s racism claims and what they were doing to improve the environment for Indigenous players.
The Hawks have three Indigenous footballers on their list – Jarman Impey, Chad Wingard and Tyler Brockman – since all-time great Shaun Burgoyne joined Rioli in retirement last year.
Impey, Wingard and Brockman informed Mitchell and co. on Friday night that they felt “culturally safe” at Hawthorn and that was relayed to the wider playing group, O’Meara said.
“Unfortunately, I had only about 18 months with Cyril and I love the bloke,” O’Meara said.
“He’s a very, very loveable character. To see those comments (about racism) really saddens you, as a fellow player and someone who played alongside him.
“He’d walk into the club with a smile on his face all the time and brighten your day as well.
“There’s a bit of a torn relationship there at the moment with Cyril and Shannyn (Ah Sam-Rioli), so I’m really hopeful the football club can put some steps in place to rekindle that relationship.”
O’Meara also spoke privately to Wingard about the issue and was satisfied that he and his other two Indigenous clubmates felt “really safe”.
The star midfielder was confident Mitchell’s passion for change in this space and the work the club’s Indigenous liaison supervisor Brady Gray was doing would make a difference.
“We’re really trying to get better in the space and I think all clubs are, so we’ve got Brady, who’s doing a really good job,” he said.
“The main thing he’s doing is educating our playing group on this space and we really want to get better. We want to be inclusive and we’ve got three really good Indigenous players here.
“They’re like brothers to us and we really want to nurture that and they’re also doing a great job in educating us as well.”
