Two-time All-Australian Chad Wingard believes the winner of Sunday’s clash is in the box seat to be named captain of this year’s best team

Noah Anderson and Jordan Dawson. Pictures: AFL Photos

THE FINAL game of round 19 will see two of the best captains and midfielders in the game face off against each other, and it could be a defining battle in the race to be All-Australian captain this year.

But will the captain of the AA team even be a captain at all?

The battle between Adelaide’s Jordan Dawson and Gold Coast’s Noah Anderson on Sunday evening will be pivotal in determining the clash between the Crows and the Suns, which looms as an eight-point game in the race for the top four.

Port Adelaide and Hawthorn champion Chad Wingard believes the Dawson v Anderson battle will have All-Australian ramifications as well.

“Could Noah Anderson become the youngest All-Australian captain since Wayne Carey (in 1993)?,” Wingard floated this week on The Round Ahead.

“He’s coming up against Jordan Dawson, who I think is the person who – I think – will compete with him to get this title.

“For me, the winner is going to be the person who leads his team best. Not disposals or goals or impact, it’s about getting your guys across the line, getting them fired up, starting well early and being consistent across four quarters. That’s what the captain does.

“If we fast forward to the end of the season and they select the All-Australian captain, I think a lot of eyes are going to come back to this game. I feel like this is a moment for both clubs, a very important game and very important for the individuals as well.”

Anderson and Dawson are two club captains who look likely to make the All-Australian side this year, while the likes of Max Gawn, Marcus Bontempelli and Connor Rozee are other skippers in AA contention.

But the All-Australian captaincy has not always been awarded to a club captain.

Four of the past eight All-Australian captains – Alex Rance, Lance Franklin, Patrick Dangerfield and Tom Hawkins – were not captains of their club at the time, with selectors rewarding a body of work rather than simply adding the ‘C’ next to a club captain’s name.

2018 All-Australian captain Lance Franklin and vice-captain Patrick Dangerfield. Picture: AFL Photos

The change was the idea of Richmond legend and then All-Australian selector Kevin Bartlett, who suggested in 2017 the captaincy of the side should be a reward for sustained excellence – like multiple selections over a long career – rather than being tied to a serving club 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’,” Cameron Ling, another selector in 2017, said, adding the panel viewed the AA captaincy as a “legacy piece”.

“It was an acknowledgment of the phenomenal career, the sustained excellence and the legacy of that player in the game.”

Both Bartlett and Ling are no longer on the selection panel, which in 2025 will consist of Andrew Dillon (Chair), Eddie Betts, Jude Bolton, Nathan Buckley, Kane Cornes, Abbey Holmes, Glen Jakovich, Laura Kane and Matthew Pavlich.

It’s yet to be seen which way the selectors go in 2025, but the outcome of Sunday’s game could prove decisive.