Port Adelaide 2024 captaincy debate: Will Ollie Wines, Connor Rozee or someone else take over from the departed Tom Jonas?

Ollie Wines is the leading candidate to succeed the retired Tom Jonas as Port Adelaide captain – but talk from the club suggests things might be changing. The current deputy has his say.

Ollie Wines says he will not take it personally if he is overlooked as Port Adelaide’s next captain.

Wines is a leading candidate to succeed the retired Tom Jonas after being the Power’s deputy since 2020, co-captain with him in 2019 and acting skipper in 12 games this year.

But this week Port football boss Chris Davies said the 2021 Brownlow medallist was not a fait accompli to get the captaincy, hinting it might be given to a younger candidate amid the club’s “generational reset”.

Wines turns 29 next month, while the player who appears the likeliest alternative, Connor Rozee, is 23 (24 in January).

Speaking last week, Wines told this masthead “it’s not something that I’d screw my face up at” if he missed out.

“(The captaincy decision) is something that’s done for the best of the team,” Wines said before the Power’s knockout semi-final loss.

“I want to win as much as anyone at the club.

“I know whatever call’s made by the club it’s for the better of us and to give us the best chance to win.

“It’s nothing I’d take personally”.

Ollie Wines leads the Power out for its semi-final against GWS. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

Wines is coming off what he has described as arguably his worst AFL season.

He played every game, but went from Port’s No. 1 centre bounce midfielder the previous two years to a fourth or fifth-choice option who played large chunks of games on a wing.

The club gave more on-ball opportunities to the younger quartet of Rozee, Zak Butters, Jason Horne-Francis and Willem Drew and Wines built into the year after off-season knee surgery.

Wines expected a captaincy decision to happen when pre-season returned.

“We’ve been pretty transparent and that’s what we’ve done the last five or six years,” he said last week.

“Nothing gets set in stone this time of the year.”

Wines would be a short-term solution and a safe pair of hands.

If Rozee gets the nod, it will be a fresh start, reminiscent of Travis Boak receiving the Power’s No. 1 guernsey at the age of 24 in 2013.

Boak held the role for six seasons and set the club’s AFL record for most games as skipper with 139.

Marcus Bontempelli became Western Bulldogs captain at the same age, while Geelong appointed Joel Selwood at 23 and Richmond gave it to Trent Cotchin at 22.

Does Port go a next generation captain with Connor Rozee? Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images

Rozee has emerged as one the faces of the Power and a star of the competition, alongside fellow 2018 first-round selection Butters.

Over the past two seasons, Rozee has earned two All-Australian blazers, one best-and-fairest and a Showdown Medal.

He has not been in the Power’s leadership group, which has comprised Jonas, Wines and Darcy Byrne-Jones since 2022.

But in a sign of their growing stature in the team, Rozee and Butters joined that contingent on a camp last pre-season to welcome seven new recruits.

In March, Rozee told this masthead he hoped to captain the club one day.

“If that comes around then that’s great, but if it doesn’t, any sort of leadership role’s great,” Rozee said.

While Wines and Rozee are the obvious contenders, 2023 All-Australian Dan Houston, 26, may be an outside chance.

Davies said on Wednesday the club needed to think about what was “setting individuals and the team up for success down the track”.

“It’s not a fait accompli that Ollie is captain. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think he’s an outstanding leader and potentially the best one. But we have to be mindful of how we can get Ollie back (to top form), he’s 29 now (next month) and what the future of our club is going to look like. What we have seen this year is a generational reset in our club that’s come naturally that we have to jump on the back of.”