Being named captain is an honour and a privilege at any football club, with the trust and expectation given toward a player to lead their team through the season. However, down at Arden Street, the title of captain means something much more terrifying for North Melbourne supporters.
In the last 15 years, there has been a pattern of North Melbourne skippers significantly dropping off in form after being given the captaincy. With at least its last five captains becoming a shell of their former selves, one can't help but think that the pressure of the position is too much for the shinboner spirit to handle.
I'm talking here about not just downward spirals of statistics that reflect on the stat sheet, but the amount of effort and impact these captains seem not to show when elevated to the expectation that they should lead the team to winning. Knowing what North's ‘winning image' is now in the 21st century, it's hard not to put some of the blame on who's leading the charge.
Nick Larkey (Current Captain)
The most recent victim of the captain's curse is the former All-Australian himself, who is currently having one of, if not his worst, seasons in his career. It comes as a surprise, with North's midfield playing their best in recent years and the addition of extra size up forward in Cooper Trembath and Jack Darling to relieve some pressure.
But regardless, Larkey is essentially failing to do his most important job on the field, with the spearhead forward kicking the least accurate of his career at 55.4% from goal so far, resulting in the biggest behind average of his career at 1.4.
It's not just the stats that don't back him, but the eye test as well, with Larkey fading out of games due to his one-dimensional play and lack of aggression in the contest. I'm of course talking about his signature flail in the air and playing for a whistle during 1-on-1 contests.
This lack of goal scoring has already hurt North's chances of a wildcard after dropping some very winnable games that could have been turned around, including a zero-goal game against in an 8-point loss to Sydney, the 21-point loss to Port Adelaide, where Larkey kicked 1.2 and last week's four-point Collingwood loss, where he booted 3.4 for the night.
At this point in time, it's a question on whether his focus on leading the team has become a compounding pressure toward his form and how it could be too much for the young forward to handle.
