{"id":429767,"date":"2026-01-22T10:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T10:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429767\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T10:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T10:45:17","slug":"hawthorn-break-with-tradition-and-appoint-co-captains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429767\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawthorn break with tradition and appoint co-captains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Midfielder Jai Newcombe has been elevated to share Hawthorn’s captaincy with James Sicily in a break with tradition by the AFL club.<\/p>\n

The Hawks have never previously had joint captains, with the decision to appoint Newcombe and retain Sicily in the role described as significant by the club’s powerbrokers.<\/p>\n

Jai Newcomb and James Sicily will co-captain Hawthorn together in 2026.\u00a0Photo by Michael Willson\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“After undertaking an internal process, we believe the co-captain model will deliver the best result for our group in the long term,” the Hawks’ football boss Rob McCartney said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“Jai emerged as the clear candidate to step into the captaincy role alongside James.<\/p>\n

“He leads by example, performs with elite consistency week to week, and has proven his ability to raise the bar on the biggest stages.”<\/p>\n

Newcombe, 24, said he was “humbled” by the move.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

“Being a Hawks supporter my whole life, it has always been a dream of mine to lead the club,” he said.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old Sicily had been sole captain since 2023.<\/p>\n

“Being co-captains allows us to share the load and give greater opportunity for Jai to lead the club,” Sicily said.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t be prouder of Jai’s development as a leader since he joined the club.<\/p>\n

“We are both extremely passionate about the direction we are headed as we strive for the ultimate success.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midfielder Jai Newcombe has been elevated to share Hawthorn’s captaincy with James Sicily in a break with tradition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-429767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429767","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=429767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}