Oh, this old chestnut again, again.
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Merrett leads by example.
Heppell throws up the 
âno worries mateâ when lazy team mates donât perform and hasnât played a full season in years. So his on field leadership is null and void where its arguably needed the most with this group.
If we want a good culture the captaincy should have gone to Merrett a long time ago.
If Merrett leaves I wonât blame him in the slightest as he has given everything to this club. The club honestly hasnât done the same back.
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But whereâs Zerrett when it comes to the idea that Hepp is all Shaka bra? Does he think thatâs good leadership? If not why isnât he the one out there letting other blokes know what he wants to see and letting them know when itâs not good enough? With Hepp out heâs had ample opportunity. If his attitude has been to sulk about not being in the special hat group, then heâs no leader either. Leadership doesnât just come from the captains, but people who show leadership should be recognised and rewarded for it and I donât buy that that happens within the team.
People are different. There is no âone styleâ of leadership which is correct.
The leadership team plays a crucial role to the captain. There is no problems of having someone like Heppell as captain (except that he canât get on the park). Our most successful team of the last 40 years had a captain with a similar style of leadership, to Heppell.
There is no problems with having a captain that is very much about bringing the group together, as long as we have a well rounded leadership group that can make up for Heppellâs deficiencies as a leader.
As for Merrett⌠itâs a tough one. There is going to be speculation about his future all season, do we need to have that hanging over the head of our leadership group.
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Embarrassing moment for him. Heâs gone from an unconditional, unwavering attack on the ball and the man (2016-17 his tackling efforts were pound for pound the best in the AFL) to a guy who picks and chooses when he makes those efforts. If youâre a supposed âleaderâ and youâre doing that, questions have to be asked.
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Heâs been targeted by the opposition off the ball for a long time now⌠you have to wonder if that has had an effect on his bravery to win the contest.
It has gotten worse the last 2-3 years. And he was copping it every week.
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That wasnât in play at least 
To be honest I think we just have a lack of natural leaders across the board or certainly a lack of guys in our team who would know what success even looked like and what it took to get there.
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Merrett has done enough to get in the leadership group.
However agree if he plans on leaving he shouldnât put his hand up.
Leadership Group
Captain Heppell
VC Merrett, McGrath
Langford
Ridley
Shiel
If Merrett out add Hurley
100% agree.
Iâm being a broken record, but Theo is holding these guys accountable? Wooshâs philosophy of self management, obviously didnât work for instilling and maintaining high level performance within games. So, either the coaches can do it or it has to be the on field leaders, which means it can no longer be guys that hold themselves to high standards but donât hold the rest of the team to the same standard.
Terry Daniher or Hird?
Bomber Thompson was probably my favourite captain, maybe it was because it was 1993.
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Reckon your hard on Heppells leadership.
Cotchin might be regarded as gold standard because the tigers are so successful. But then again look at the hardness of the cattle he has around him.
I would rather Hepp than Merrett as the leader of the footy club but thatâs just me. Heppell is a quality inside player that gets his hands dirty no matter what. Fearless on field.
Zach is a beautiful player, highly skilled. Mr Football.
I just think he doesnât need to be captain and we donât need him to be one.
Replacing Heppell is not the answer and creating a larger and larger leadership group isnât either.
Cameron Ling was Geelongâs captain FFS.
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We went through Daniher 2020 in terms of the âwill he, wonât he?â stay talk. Every little thing that happens with Zach will be scrutinised and read into in terms of whether he will stay or leave in FA. If he returns to the leadership group, can we read into it that he stays? If he doesnât is it a sign he leaves? Iâm ambivalent about it all. If heâs not committed to our future, then on your way and thanks for your service. We will take the extra 1st round pick, which will be up in the pointy end of the draft based on how I think we will fare in 2021, in a strong draft too, and will go a long way towards getting in the elite young talent we need to rebuild our playing stocksâŚ
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Iâm past point of caring about which players are leaving the club tbh.
I care more about list balance and quality of the players coming in. I donât have much emotional investment in players other than they contribute to the club winning.
We have gotten to a point as a club (and as supporters) that loyalty is more important than whatâs in the best interest of the club.
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I wouldnât be so fast to pin that on Hepp. Heâs been the captain of an absolute basket case club thatâs going through a terrible period. I think a lot of the â â â â clubs have good captains though.
Heâs hard a nails though, always puts his head over the footy and works extremely hard in game and at training. I highly rate those qualities and theyâre common with all good captains.
Having said that i wouldnât be opposed to a change. His body has let him down and you really need a captain that can take the field every week.
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If the club is going through a refresh / rebuild etc and planning for the long term, then itâs time to start considering our future leaders from now.
Time for McGrath, Ridley and Draper to be considered.
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Give Heppell one last year to solidify his performance, get Pidge and Langers to VC and learn what they can under him and do away with this leadership group bullshit