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.
Jack Ziebell (2017-2022)
One of the most impactful players out of the centre in the competition during his prime years, Ziebell's falloff can be attributed to age, but at the same time, his change to multiple positions across the ground.
Ziebell's first year as skipper seemed to take things right off after one of his best seasons, with a similar 22.2 disposal average to the previous season and impact, but the winning was not. North Melbourne finished in the bottom five with a 6-16 record and started its streak of no finals appearances, one that still remains to this day.
The following seasons resulted in Ziebell being removed from the midfield, with an emphasis on developing North's young core through the middle, while the skipper had to learn the game all over again. He declined in almost every major statistical category while scoring 1.6 goals a game.
He wasn't useless up forward, but definitely wasn't the same player he once was during the 2020 season; it finally all came crumbling down. Playing only eight games due to dealing with a hamstring injury throughout the season, Ziebell notched just 8 touches a game, which issued another role change to the team's backline sweeper.
Down back, Ziebell racked up stats like no other, but his impact and identity as an ‘empty stat' player became prevalent and disregarded the bullocking force of impact in the middle that once defined his game.
