{"id":335068,"date":"2025-12-08T14:30:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T14:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/335068\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T14:30:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T14:30:24","slug":"nick-larkey-named-north-melbourne-kangaroos-skipper-replacing-jy-simpkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/335068\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Larkey named North Melbourne Kangaroos skipper, replacing Jy Simpkin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Larkey will be the new captain of North Melbourne<\/a> in 2026, with players and coaches voting him into the role.<\/p>\n

It comes after 2025 skipper Jy Simpkin requested a move out of the club during the trade period. <\/p>\n

Collingwood<\/a> showed some interest in bringing the midfielder across, but the teams were too far apart on the details of a trade and it never eventuated. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: Australia has ignored the brutal truth about Piastri’s downfall<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Boycott unloads on England after Ashes ‘horror show’<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Players who could face the axe after Stokes’ ‘weak men’ comment<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Nick<\/p>\n

Nick Larkey of North Melbourne.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

AFL<\/a> Media’s Cal Twomey is reporting that Simpkin opted to step aside from a leadership position, likely because of his attempt to leave the club.<\/p>\n

Essendon’s<\/a> Zach Merrett made the same decision after requesting a trade out of the Bombers and will also step down for the 2026 season<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Both situations illustrate what can happen when clubs dig in to keep important players after they have requested trades.<\/p>\n

West Coast captain Oscar Allen successfully got to Brisbane as a free agent, while Carlton vice captain Charlie Curnow was eventually traded to Sydney.<\/p>\n

Simpkin has captained the Roos since 2023. The first two seasons were alongside defender Luke McDonald.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old requested a trade largely because the Kangaroos have moved on from him as a pure midfielder, favouring a younger core of Harry Sheezel, George Wardlaw, Luke Davies-Uniacke and Colby McKercher. <\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

George Wardlaw, Jy Simpkin and Finn O’Sullivan of the Kangaroos.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Simpkin has been stuck on flanks and wings for the last few seasons and wished for a fresh start and more time on-ball. He is contracted with North Melbourne until the end of 2029.<\/p>\n

Club champion Corey McKernan was vocal on social media following the trade request that the midfielder could return to the club, but had to relinquish the captaincy.<\/p>\n

McKernan also labelled Collingwood’s reported call to only offer a second round pick for Simpkin a “slight reality check” for the wantaway player.<\/p>\n

Larkey, who made the 2023 All-Australian team, now steps into the role and will be the club’s ninth captain since 2000.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old has played 134 games for the Roos and kicked 278 goals, since being selected with pick 73 in the 2016 draft. <\/p>\n

Star midfielder Sheezel served as vice captain alongside Larkey in 2025 and the 21-year-old will likely take the captaincy at some point later in his career.<\/p>\n

They will be hoping to lead the Roos out of the bottom four, after the club finished 16th with five wins last season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Larkey will be the new captain of North Melbourne in 2026, with players and coaches voting him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-335068","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\/335068","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=335068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}