STAR midfielder Joel Selwood has been named Geelong's new captain, with 2007 Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel appointed the club's vice-captain.

Harry Taylor, Corey Enright, Joel Corey, James Kelly and Steve Johnson are the other members of the Cats' leadership group. Johnson is the only new member of the group.

At the age of 23, Selwood has already played in three premierships, and he was Geelong's vice-captain last season.

He takes over as skipper from Cameron Ling, who retired after leading the Cats to victory over Collingwood in the 2011 Grand Final.
 
"It's a great feeling," Selwood said after the announcement was made in the Captains' Room at Simonds Stadium on Friday afternoon.

"This is the football club that I loved as a kid. I grew up barracking for the football club.

"It's over 150 years old, it's a proud football club, and it's in a really good position at the moment and I want to continue to make it that way."

Geelong's leadership group was chosen after input from all of the club's players, coaches and football department managers.

The leadership group was then asked to put forward its nomination for the captaincy, which it did on Thursday.

That recommendation was subsequently ratified by the football department and the board.

"It was pretty easy," Bartel said. "Since [Joel] walked into the club he had captain written all over him.

"That goes to all areas: the way he handles himself amongst the group and everybody else in the club through to the professionalism in the way he prepares to play.

"We all know how much of leader he is on the field, how he attacks the game.

"He's just got credibility written all over him in every area, so it was pretty easy for the rest of us to pick Joel as captain."

Selwood was taken at pick No. 7 in the 2006 NAB AFL Draft after playing in the TAC Cup with the Bendigo Pioneers.

His most recent experience as a captain came when he skippered the AIS-AFL Academy in a match against Ireland prior to being being drafted.
 
In his first season at the elite level, when he was 19, Selwood won the NAB Rising Star award and a premiership.
 
Since then he has won two further flags, in 2009 and 2011, and was named in the All Australian team in 2009 and 2010. He also won Geelong's best and fairest award in 2010.
 
Selwood has played in 114 AFL matches, winning 98 of them. He has averaged 25.4 possessions per game over his career.

As skipper, he wants to try and emulate the feats of the Cats' recent captains, Ling and Tom Harley.

"They're probably two of the best captains that the football club has ever had," Selwood said.

"There is pressure to stand up to what those guys have done, but we look forward to the challenge as a group, to see what we can do.

"It's funny coming off a premiership and then having to announce a new captain, but we've had to do it twice now and we look forward to what's going to happen.

"I'm probably going to be a captain that's going to be a sponge over the next couple of years while I've got these experienced blokes around me, and the other people at the football club.

"We've got great leadership from above, with people like [president] Colin Carter, [chief executive] Brian Cook, [football department bosses] Neil Balme and Steve Hocking and all the coaches."
 
Selwood's brother Troy played for the Brisbane Lions and is now an assistant coach at Geelong. His other siblings, Adam and Scott, are both on West Coast's list.

Bartel is similarly highly-decorated, having won last year's Norm Smith Medal to go with his 2007 Brownlow Medal and three premierships. The star midfielder is also a dual All Australian and has finished in the top three of Geelong's best and fairest award five times.


New vice-captain Jimmy Bartel and skipper Joel Selwood share a laugh after a Geelong win in 2008


Joel Selwood takes possession during the 2011 Grand Final


Selwood celebrates the 2011 premiership with Tom Hawkins


Selwood, after a heavy clash with St Kilda's Farren Ray in round one, 2011