ANDREW Carrazzo has admitted he was disappointed to be overlooked for the Carlton captaincy.

Carrazzo lost out to Marc Murphy, who was appointed Carlton skipper after a pre-season-long search to find Chris Judd's replacement.

Carrazzo, a lifelong Blues fan, will share the vice-captaincy with Kade Simpson as the Blues try to emulate great teams of the past by establishing a strong core of leaders.

Asked if he was disappointed to miss out on the top job, Carrazzo said: "For sure. And I know Kade was as well. But now we look forward to becoming a tight unit.

"You look at all the good teams in the past, especially the really successful ones, they've had a group of five or six leaders who really feed off of each other, who really support each other."

While disappointed to miss out on the top job, the tenacious midfielder said he was proud to be named vice-captain.

"All five of us in the leadership group put our hand up for it," he said.

"From a personal point of view, it's an amazing honour to be named vice-captain. I know it sounds corny but I've barracked for Carlton my whole life and started as a rookie, so it's a bit surreal being named vice-captain.

"But I know 'Simmo' and I are going to support 'Murph' in every way he needs and allow him to grow into becoming a great captain, which I think he can be."

Season preview: Carlton

The 29-year-old said the extended audition process for the captaincy had reaped benefits for the club.

"'Juddy' has worn a pretty heavy burden over the last few years and, for his sake and the club's sake, it was great to have a big bunch of guys all step up," he said.

"We had a lot of guys put their hand up for the leadership group, and a lot of guys who I hadn’t thought of much as leaders have really grown and stepped up in the last three or four months."

Murphy, Carrazzo and co get their chance to lead the way in their now-annual season-opener against Richmond at the MCG on Thursday night.

Carrazzo said as many as 28 Blues could be in consideration for selection this week, but admitted the Tigers presented "a big challenge".

"I'm sure they've been waiting for this game (with) baited breath for the last few months," he said.

As they should, after losing their past nine encounters against the Blues by an average margin of 50 points, including defeats in each of their past four round-one clashes.

Carrazzo says he's unsure why Carlton has held a stranglehold over the Tigers, but believes past history is irrelevant, especially in round one when most players are fit and confident.

"We're going to have to play at our absolute best if we're going to beat them," he said.

Carrazzo is a strong candidate to be assigned the unenviable stopping job on Trent Cotchin, Richmond's new captain and an early Brownlow Medal fancy. Carrazzo said he could "possibly" line up on the superstar, but emphasised that the Blues' entire midfield would need to be sharp to beat the Tigers' talented runners.

He said the Blues' NAB Cup Grand Final loss was simply an "aberration" and the Blues were well advanced with coach Mick Malthouse's game plan.

"I think we're a fair way advanced," he said. "Ask any coach in any team throughout the year (and) they're going to have slight, little days where they regress a little bit and they've got to adjust things.

"That last game against Brisbane, we'd like to think, was a bit of an aberration."
 
Andrew Carrazzo is a midfielder in NAB AFL Fantasy. He averaged 90.7 points in 2012. Register your team at our AFL Fantasy Hub.