Gold Coast Suns captains tasked with building more than just their own club

SUNS officials will task co-captains David Swallow and Jarrod Witts with building more than just their own club, with growing the game on the Gold Coast a key directive in their new roles.

SUNS officials will task co-captains David Swallow and Jarrod Witts with building more than just their own club, with growing the game on the Gold Coast a key directive in their new roles.

Fresh off their coronation as the replacements for 2018 skippers Tom Lynch and Steven May, Swallow and Witts – with the help of six other leadership group members - will this year set about rectifying a record that has left the club in the AFL’s bottom four for the past four seasons.

But while on-field success remains top priority, their to-do list also includes a range of off-field activities.

Captains David Swallow and Jarrod Witts pose during a Gold Coast Suns AFL media opportunity at Metricon Stadium on February 25, 2019 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

“The beauty of having 46 players and so many staff is we all have our role to play,” coach Stuart Dew said.

“Obviously the captains are going to be the face of the club and beneath that is a whole army of players that are really keen to have that connection to the community. I think that is the best thing about the Gold Coast – we’re really accessible and we want to help footy grow in southeast Queensland and I think we have a really important part to play in that.

“We’ve really put some time into that in the past 12 months and we’ll continue to grow that area because we see that as such as important part of the game, which is bigger than the football club itself. It’s also such an important part of this club and having that connection.”

Chief executive Mark Evans said having watched a flood of players - headlined by Lynch and May – depart in recent seasons, the captaincy selection process came amid a wider shift in focus.

“We’ve run a lot of activities in (developing leadership) across the course of the summer,” Evans said.