Ollie Wines hits the track with Power teammates as the club begins its search for Travis Boak’s replacement

Everyone is looking at Ollie Wines so it was fitting he was the first one on the track at Port Adelaide training on Monday morning.

• Travis Boak steps down as Port Adelaide captain
• Wines no certainty to replace Boak

Everyone is looking at Ollie Wines so it was fitting he was the first one on the track at Port Adelaide training on Monday morning.

The man most see as favourite to succeed Travis Boak as the Power’s next captain appeared just after 9am only to quickly go back inside as if he’d forgotten something.

But as the three-month audition for what coach Ken Hinkley considers “the most important person on game day” officially began, the vice-captain was front and centre as the players ran onto Alberton.

Wines is seen as the logical captain-in-waiting. At 24 he is the same age as when Boak took the reins in 2013 and like Boak has just signed a long-term contract to stay at the club, resisting Victorian offers.

But the next man to wear the No. 1 guernsey will depend on the type of captain the team needs and the players and Hinkley want.

Is it a lead by example player like Wines, who like Boak, is a professional and at the coalface in the midfield?

A lead by performance player like Robbie Gray who is also Kane Cornes’ choice?

A lead by words and actions player like defensive general Tom Jonas who is seen as a conduit between players and coaches?

Or a lead by experience player like Justin Westhoff who is the oldest (32) and most experienced (248 games) and the reigning club champion?

Or any of the other members of the leadership group like Tom Rockliff, Charlie Dixon, Hamish Hartlett and Brad Ebert who share a combination of those qualities?

Defender Dougal Howard said there were a number of candidates and he’d be happy to run out behind any of them.

Wines is seen by many as the frontrunner to replace Travis Boak as Port’s next skipper. Picture: Kelly Barnes (AAP).

Wines is a loyal and passionate clubman who is often seen in the Magpies’ rooms at Alberton and at times carries the Power’s midfield on his shoulders.

His contested possession to uncontested possession ratio is 1:1 so for every kick he gets given, he goes and gets one himself.

But the knock on his game has been his kicking which at times lets him down, like the set shot brainfade in the Showdown loss to Adelaide this year. But the good outweighs the bad with Wines.

Like in the dying moments of the Round 14 win over Melbourne when he took a contested mark at halfback then another at half-forward to help seal the game. Earlier this year Power assistant coach Michael Voss told The Advertiser of Wines’ development:

“He’s not so much more vocal but more demanding, he wants to succeed like all of us and he’s got more of an all-round game about him now so when he really puts the foot down with his physicality the other stuff sits alongside it.”

No one takes losing well but Wines seems to take it particularly badly.

“And he doesn’t like particularly seeing bad edits of himself either,” Voss said.

“He’s pretty tough on himself and part of his education has been how does he see and recognise that in the moment and make better decisions.”

At 24 is Wines too young for the job? In a documentary titled ‘The Chosen Few’ this year, former Essendon captain Jobe Watson said he wished he was 26 and not 24 when he got the job at the Bombers.

But Trent Cotchin was 22 and admitted to self-doubts when he took over at Richmond and he led the Tigers to their first flag in 37 years.

Boak at his first training session since stepping down as Power captain last Friday. Picture: Kelly Barnes.

Jonas, 27, leads by the way he plays which is ruthlessly competitive stemming from fighting his way off the rookie list. He plays on the edge — and sometimes over it — but is not afraid to voice his opinion.

One story relayed to The Advertiser was during a Magpies SANFL final one year some Power players — whose season had ended weeks before — were discussing whether Hinkley would mind if they had a beer in their Adelaide Oval suite, when Jonas supposedly just walked straight over and asked him.

Gray would lead the team with sheer brilliance and unbelievable consistency after overcoming some serious challenges in his career. He hasn’t been in Port’s leadership group since 2014 and is softly spoken but when he talks, people listen. The same goes for Westhoff who was so quiet he was nicknamed “Humphrey”, but is arguably the most respected player on the list.

Hinkley said aspirants have three months to “show what they’ve got”. But Port already knows what it will get from its next captain.

The question is going into Hinkley’s seventh year and after missing finals in 2018, what type of captain does Port Adelaide need in 2019?