NRL 2021: Newcastle will field a revolutionary captaincy structure which will see players split duties within games

One player tossing the coin, the other leading the team out. It’s the revolutionary captaincy structure Knights coach Adam O’Brien hopes will ‘stop the lack of leadership talk’ at the club.

Jayden Brailey and Daniel Saifiti

Newcastle will rotate their captains throughout the season and even split responsibilities within matches. with forwards Jayden Brailey and Daniel Saifiti given first crack at the role.

Saifiti will lead the team out onto the park in their round one clash against Canterbury while Brailey will communicate with the referee and toss the coin.

The pair – who were told of the news at Newcastle’s season launch on Tuesday night – are part of a five-man leadership team alongside Blake Green, Kalyn Ponga and Mitch Barnett. With Green and Ponga sidelined for at least a month, the Knights will share the duties between the other three players.

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Jayden Brailey will call the shots on the field in round one.

“I’ll rotate it around as I see,” Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien said.

“It freshen guys up. It’s a big responsibility being captain of the Newcastle team. It’ll be more of a feel thing for me regarding who will lead the team out each week.

“Running a model like this, we won’t be sitting here in two or three years time talking about lack of leadership. We could have a stand alone captain later in the year or next year. I’ll make that decision.”

The vastly experienced Green will take on a lion share of the off-field commitments. The Knights will adopt a similar module to Melbourne’s in 2006 who split the captaincy duties between David Kidwell, Scott Hill, Cameron Smith, Matt Geyer and Michael Crocker.

Eventually Smith assumed the role full-time but that was not until two seasons later.

The impressive Daniel Saifiti gets a chance to show his leadership qualities.

“I don’t think there is the one perfect model but this is a perfect one for us right now,” O’Brien said.

“It hasn’t been done on a whim and it’s not about me not being make to make a definitive call. It’s about making the right call for this playing group.

“Like passing and tackling, leadership needs to be developed. We’ve spent the whole summer developing them.”

The changes were made after Mitchell Pearce stood down as skipper. Saifiti will get to run the team out in his 100th game in front of his home crowd.

“Daniel is that alpha male – he has the emotion that’s attached to leading,” O’Brien said.

Blake Green will play a key part in the plan.

“Jayden is very calm and tactical. He doesn’t get too emotional. It’s a really good yin and yang model. We can get the details in that the team needs through Jayden but we can get the emotion and reaction through Daniel.”

Despite David Klemmer being overlooked for an official leadership position, O’Brien said the representative prop was still playing a senior role.

“He drives the standards,” O’Brien said.

“I don’t want to temper his heart on sleeve approach. I love that about him. He is an example for all the younger players on how they should live their life. He is a good family man.”

Originally published as NRL 2021: Newcastle will field a revolutionary captaincy structure which will see players split duties within games