Dylan Main named South Fremantle captain for 2018

IT will be the start of a new era at the South Fremantle Football Club in 2018 with the club's longest-serving captain Ryan Cook deciding to stand down and taking over will be Dylan Main with the Bulldogs' leadership group having been decided.

Cook will continue his 138-game career with the Bulldogs in 2018 as he closes in on earning life membership go along with his two WJ Hughes Medal and being a state representative six times, but it won't be as captain.

It brings to an end a remarkable run as skipper for Cook who joined the Bulldogs in 2011 from Collingwood. After that initial season where he claimed the fairest and best award, he was appointed captain in 2012 and remained in that role up until the end of 2017.

That run of 117 games as captain makes Cook the longest-serving skipper in South Fremantle history but the soon-to-be 30-year-old felt the time was right to hand on the job to somebody else in 2018.

Following the voting process involving the playing group and the coaching staff, it was decided that Main would be the new captain of South Fremantle in 2018.

He is coming off a tremendous 2017 season where he was a tremendously consistent midfielder for the Bulldogs finishing third in WJ Hughes Medal voting behind Haiden Schloithe and Tim Kelly.

Main averaged 21.5 possessions a game and his tremendous consistency and leadership are a big factor in why he has been voted on to take over as captain. The 22-year-old has now played 56 WAFL games and is entering the peak years of his career.

He will be ably backed up by Mason Shaw who has been named vice-captain having now played 46 games and kicked 95 goals in two seasons back with the Bulldogs following his stint in the AFL with Port Adelaide.

Rounding out the leadership group are Ashton Hams, Ben Saunders, Shane Hockey and Haiden Schloithe.

The process to decide the leadership group saw all players and coaches vote on their top five choices to be captain.

From those 17 players who were nominated as potential captains, it was decided that a leadership group of five or six players was ideal and from that, it was Main and Shaw who emerged in the next round of voting as the standout choices as captain and vice-captain.

While Cook, new recruit Nick Suban and excitement machine Marlion Pickett weren’t officially voted in as part of the leadership group, their experience and ability to help those emerging leaders will prove invaluable.