Has there been a bigger player transformation in the AFL in recent years than Jarrod Witts?
That was the big question which dominated talkback radio in Melbourne today after Witts was appointed co-captain of the Gold Coast SUNS alongside David Swallow for AFL season 2019.
And the collective vote of listeners was that it’s difficult to find anyone to better the 209cm ruckman.
Certainly, heading into the season new Witts will present as an entirely different player from that which sought a trade to the SUNS at the end of the 2016 AFL season after his career had virtually stalled at Collingwood.
He had played 40 games in four years at Collingwood, including only two in 2016, and averaged 9.85 disposals, 18.1 hit-outs, 1.85 clearances, 5.55 contested possessions and 2.55 one-percenters. He had never finished top 10 in the club best & fairest.
In 40 games in two years with the SUNS, he has averaged 13.5 disposals, 38.4 hit-outs, 3.8 clearances, 7.75 contested possessions and 3.15 one-centres.
He was 8th in the SUNS B&F to Round 19 in 2017 before missing the last four games through injury, eventually finishing 11th, and in 2018 he finished equal 8th.
And in Round 20 last year, in what proved to be a pointer to today’s captaincy announcement, Witts captained the SUNS against Melbourne at the MCG when former co-captains Tom Lynch and Steven May were absent.
Such has been the transformation of the Sydney-born, one-time teammate of Test cricket ace Pat Cummins in the NSW Emerging Blues side and former GWS Giants TAC Cup player, that last month he signed a SUNS contract extension until the end of 2024.
Witts and Swallow will take the combined experience of three games as captain into the job.
Swallow, one of six members of the SUNS’ foundation AFL playing list in 2011 alongside Sam Day, Jarrod Harbrow, Tom Nicholls, Michael Rischitelli and Rory Thompson who are still at the club, captained the SUNS in Round 20, 2014 and Round 7, 2018.
Seven other players have captained the Gold Coast in an official AFL match – 2011-16 skipper Gary Ablett (96 games), 2017-18 co-captains May (26) and Lynch (15), Rischitelli (17), Nathan Bock (4), Dion Prestia (2) and Campbell Brown (1).
Swallow will assume the shared captaincy full-time after having been in the club’s leadership group in 2012 and from 2014-18, while Witts will step into the top job after just one season in the leadership group.
Swallow’s seventh season in the leadership group will see him equal the club record of Rischitelli, who served in this role from 2012-17 before stepping down voluntarily to open the door for younger members of the playing group to do so.
Pearce Hanley’s appointment as SUNS vice-captain for 2019 follows his elevation to the leadership group alongside Witts by coach Stuart Dew in his first year at the helm last year, while Touk Miller will serve alongside Hanley as vice-captain after two years in the leadership group.
Harbrow will take on a formal leadership role for the second time, after he did likewise in 2016, while Alex Sexton, Brayden Fiorini and George Horlin Smith are new additions to this group.
Horlin-Smith, traded from Geelong over the off-season, follows Matt Rosa in being appointed to the SUNS leadership group in his first season with the club.
Members of the SUNS leadership group year by year have been:
Gary Ablett – 2011-2016
Nathan Bock – 2011-2014
Campbell Brown – 2011
Daniel Harris – 2011
Marc Lock – 2011
Michael Rischitelli – 2011-2017
Zac Smith – 2011-2012
Karmichael Hunt – 2012
Andrew McQualter – 2012
David Swallow – 2012, 2014-2019
Tom Lynch – 2014-2018
Dion Prestia – 2014-2016
Nick Malceski – 2015-2016
Jarrow Harbrow – 2016, 2019
Steven May – 2016-2018
Matt Rosa – 2016-2018
Jaeger O’Meara – 2016
Michael Barlow – 2017-2018
Touk Miller – 2017-2019
Jarrod Witts – 2018-2019
Pearce Hanley – 2018-2019
Alex Sexton – 2019
George Horlin-Smith – 2019
Brayden Fiorini – 2019
