Geelong premiership captain Cameron Ling says the position of All-Australian captain is now a recognition of ‘sustained excellence’ rather than being tied to a serving club captain. 

Cats forward Tom Hawkins received his fifth All-Australian blazer at last week’s AFL Awards and was surprised to have received the captaincy nod, but accordingly to Ling, an All-Austalian selector, he shouldn’t have been. 

Speaking on the To The Final Bell podcast, Ling said the captaincy position had loosely shifted to a legacy piece on the back of a proposal from fellow selector Kevin Bartlett back in 2017. 

“About five or six years ago, Kevin Bartlett, a long-time selector on the All-Australian panel presented to the group, the selectors, about the All-Australian captain not having to be tied to a club captain. More, becoming an acknowledgment an a legacy piece for somebody,” Ling said.

“The first couple of examples were Alex Rance and Buddy Franklin who I think, Alex had gotten to five in a row All-Australians, and was made captain, Buddy Franklin, I think it was his eighth All-Australian, this is all off the top of my head, and he was captain. 

“A little bit of a fuss was made and it was explained that the All-Australian captaincy is not an acknowledgment necessarily of 'he was the best captain for the year', it was an acknowledgment of the phenomenal career, the sustained excellence and the legacy of that player in the game.”

Hawkins last week joined Gary Ablett Sr as the only player in history to be selected to the All-Australian side four times after the age of 30, and has now amassed 724 goals and 272 goal assists over his 324 game career. He also joined teammate Patrick Dangerfield as the second Cat in recent history to have been named skipper despite not captaining his club. 

Ling said it was an appropriate acknowledgment of what Hawkins has brought to Geelong, and the game, over a long period of time. 

“Joel Selwood is the captain of the Cats and in my eyes the greatest captain in the history of the game,” he said. “Tom Hawkins is also an outstanding leader, his selflessness, the standards that he sets of himself and of the group. A terrific leader but he's almost excluded from becoming an All-Australian captain because he's not captain of the Cats.

“This an acknowledgment of the legacy of what Tom Hawkins has been able to achieve right throughout his career and I am really comfortable with that.” 

The ever-humble Hawkins, took it all in his stride. 

“I don’t think I’ve actually ever been captain of a football side before, so to be standing alongside some of the best players of our generation is pretty cool,” he said.

“Very unexpected, but very cool to be identified with.”