{"id":334753,"date":"2025-12-08T10:57:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T10:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334753\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T10:57:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T10:57:12","slug":"afl-larkey-to-take-over-from-simpkin-as-kangaroos-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334753\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL: Larkey to take over from Simpkin as Kangaroos captain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nick Larkey will be the next North Melbourne captain in the wake of Jy Simpkin&#8217;s unsuccessful bid for an AFL trade.<\/p>\n<p>North players voted for the key forward and his appointment is expected to be confirmed in the next 48 hours by the Kangaroos board.<\/p>\n<p>Simpkin also will no longer be in North&#8217;s player leadership group.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/afl\/story\/_\/id\/46897902\/afl-2025-20-biggest-storylines-season-izak-rankine-nasiah-wanganeen-milera-brisbane-lions\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/r1584021_1000x1000_1-1.png&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.png\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/afl\/story\/_\/id\/47180990\/afl-tasmania-devils-stadium-gets-green-light\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/r1553786_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>1 Related<\/p>\n<p>He had been sole captain this season after sharing the role over the previous two years.<\/p>\n<p>Simpkin explained after the trade period he thought a change of club might do him good after a rough time, including the loss of two loved ones this year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whilst my leadership position may take a step back, I&#8217;m committed to continuing to give my all and help in every way possible to bring success as ultimately that&#8217;s all I am after,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Larkey and Harry Sheezel were co-vice captains this season under Simpkin.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old Larkey has played 134 games and kicked 278 goals for the Kangaroos since his 2017 debut. He was a value pick in the 2016 draft, going to North with the No.73 selection.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/>Nick Larkey will captain the Kangaroos in 2026.\u00a0Photo by Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>He made the 2023 All-Australian team, kicking a career-best 71 goals that season.<\/p>\n<p>At 21, Sheezel appears certain to captain North at some point in his career.<\/p>\n<p>Essendon also must appoint a new captain after Zach Merrett stepped down from the role.<\/p>\n<p>The Bombers&#8217; best player sought a move to Hawthorn, but Essendon knocked back the Hawks&#8217; offers in a frenzied and heated end to the trade period.<\/p>\n<p>Merrett announced late last month that he was not the right person to stay captain after being in the role for the past three seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew McGrath was the early favourite to succeed him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Larkey will be the next North Melbourne captain in the wake of Jy Simpkin&#8217;s unsuccessful bid for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-334753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}