Fremantle no longer employs a vice-captain in its leadershipmodel, but if there’s a member of the leadership group who acts as a first officer to captain Matthew Pavlich, it’s Aaron Sandilands.
“’Pav’ is such a good leader, he does take most of the responsibility, but the rest of the leadership group is trying to become better as leaders and learn from him, because he’s so good at it,” Sandilands said.
“We try and help him out as much as we can because there is a fair load on his shoulders.”
Sandilands, who was the club’s vice captain before this season, said he had enjoyed being in the leadership group.
But at 29-years-old, he was aware that he would one day have to take a step back and allow a younger player to take over.
“At some stage, the up and coming young guns will be in the leadership group and I’ll be able to take a back seat,” he said.
One of the players that Sandilands identified as a prime candidate for leadership in the future was Nathan Fyfe.
“He’s been at the club a couple of years now and he’s one of those players that, before getting injured, had been playing very consistently,” he said.
“The next thing for him would be to step into the leadership group.”
