ESSENDON is edging closer to deciding on its captain for 2016, with a heavy focus on the club's leadership at the Bombers' two-day camp in Healesville this week.
New Bombers coach John Worsfold said the group had worked through the key criteria for team leadership and voted for who best displayed those attributes.
However the West Coast premiership coach, who took over the senior position after the departure of club legend James Hird, stressed that captain Jobe Watson was not running for election, and gave a strong indication there would be no significant change in the team's leadership.
"This is not a captaincy vote, this is about leadership. We want to see which players are strong in certain criteria and which players are strong across all criteria," Worsfold said on Wednesday.
"The leadership group will be made up by a mixture. It's not just the best players, it will be players who are really strong. We've got five criteria they've been marked against and we'll have a look at who leads the way in different areas.
"From what I've seen and listened to with the group, the current leadership group are doing a wonderful job. My gut feel is I don't expect any massive or dramatic changes."
Star midfielder Dyson Heppell took on the captaincy reins last year in the absence of the injured Watson, who has held the role since 2010.
Watson admitted last season the weight of the ASADA and WADA investigation had fatigued him and seen his love for the game diminish, but Worsfold said Watson had shown great enthusiasm about next year.
"We'll sit down and talk through how he's feeling about the job. That's the critical part – he has to have the passion and the energy to take on the role," Worsfold said.
"We know he's good enough and has all the skills to do it, but there is extra demands on leaders of footy teams and he has to be prepared he's up for that again.
"He looks very passionate about the upcoming year. There's a lot of excitement about the future here and what we're trying to build."
Essendon's eight-man leadership group this year comprised of Watson, Heppell, David Zaharakis, Cale Hooker, Brent Stanton, Brendon Goddard, Paul Chapman and David Myers.
While the captaincy appears unlikely to change, there are likely to be a number of positional moves that will make Worsfold's Essendon team look different to the one that finished in 15thposition this year.
New recruit Matthew Leuenberger is likely to hold down the No.1 ruck mantle so Tom Bellchambers can have more of an impact near goal, while All Australian key defender Cale Hooker has been training with the forwards group over the first part of this pre-season following his stint in attack last season.
"At the moment we want him to spend a bit of time forward because he showed he could impact up forward without actually having ever trained there. There's a lot of upside there," Worsfold said of Hooker, who kicked 21 goals last season and won the club's best and fairest.
