It's been the catch-cry for the last 12 months or so. What exactly does it mean? Who should be leaders?

Everyone? or a core group of senior players?

Compare this year's senior squad players with the 2001 finals achieving senior squad:

2001 "Senior" players
Allan
Beaumont
Bradley
Camporeale
Christou
Franchina
Hickmott
Hulme
Koutoufides
Lappin
Mansfield
Manton
McKay
Murphy
Ratten
Rice
Silvagni
Whitnall


2006 "Senior" players
Fevola
French
Houlihan
Koutoufides
Lappin
Saddington
Scotland
Stevens
Teague
Whitnall

In less than five years, the core senior group has been slashed almost in half, has aged, and has not been adequately replaced (Equivalents = Predergast, Wiggins, Thornton etc).

No doubt having one coach in 1999 another from 2000 through 2002 and yet another from 2003 through 2006 hasn't helped with continuity, planning and stability.

To bulid up a leadership group to rival the core group of 2001 and earlier will take many years.

No wonder we're struggling at the moment. Footy is a team game. It requires more than one or two who lead the way...the intricate structure of a footy team is the complex puzzle a coach and his or her staff must be able to piece together in their path to premiership glory.

Yep.

They will grow as a team and the leaders will sprout. We can't expect some leader from another club to just waltz in and take the reins It doesn't work like that. Leadership grows and it depends on where you are and who you have around you. You earn respect from your peers from time and experience not just because you have 'born leader' written on your resume......

I personally think it is a natural progression not something to be looked for when you are 16 going on 17 but something that with time, circumstances and team dynamics will eventually grow.

It will happen....we just gotta be patient.

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The buzzwords "Leadership Qualties" sprout from just that TBM - people who are perceived to have a personality or character traits that are synonomous with leaders. Most of the time they wind up in a leadership role for their team anyway, but you know it when you see it and if it's prominent at such a young age, it can only be a good thing.

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