![\"Sicily](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/e0cd67ba0a3b3b1c0660bd5e6453573a7461302f.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cIt was a couple of years of just numbness. I still enjoyed playing footy and coming to the club, it\u2019s an amazing place to work, but out on the field I was just so conscious of, \u2018Don\u2019t show any emotion, don\u2019t f— up, don\u2019t f— up\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do enjoy my footy more, and it makes me feel alive when I am playing right on the edge. I play well, and it makes me feel good. But sometimes when I am getting too highly strung I am good defensively, but I can start to not process things fast offensively, so it might take me longer to make a decision, or I might not see the game as clearly as I would if I was calmer.<\/p>\n
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Sicily has opened up about his leadership style.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, in terms of competitiveness and playing in defence, it is awesome when I am highly strung and right on the edge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea that the mature Sicily is placid and controlled shouldn\u2019t be overstated. He recalls a moment in the finals when he found himself clashing with a teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually, I can catch myself and I just try to take a deep breath and smile, or try to take the piss,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then there\u2019s times where… I didn\u2019t even know I did it at the time, but I pushed Meeky [Lloyd Meek] in one of the finals where he came over and said, \u2018Calm down\u2019, and I was [saying], \u2018Just f— off,\u2019 and pushed him away. I didn\u2019t have the time or the brain capacity to not do it and I look back now and go, \u2018Oh geez I look like the biggest dill there\u2019. For the most part, the last three years I have been able to regulate my emotions far better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The full extent of his injuries<\/p>\n
For Sicily, part of getting the passion back is tied in with getting back to playing at his best. Last year was tough.<\/p>\n
He injured his shoulder about this time last pre-season and had to carry it all year. That meant that it was constantly agitated and knocked about during the year. Then, at the end of the season, he hurt it badly.<\/p>\n
Compounding matters, his shoulder injury only added to a debilitating hip and abdomen problem. He received treatment at one point to deaden the nerve receptors to relieve the pain. It worked for a couple of weeks, but then the pain returned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hip was a pain in the arse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t get it right. I tried to take some time off, and that did help, but it just needed this full off-season to get fully right \u2013 [and] it is feeling really good now.<\/p>\n
![\"Sicily](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/e168808915adf88e30dba5fc176cc6bf53e76ee5.jpeg\")
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Sicily has a history of shoulder issues.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a bit of a frustrating injury because when your form is bad, you want to do more, and you want to train more and get some confidence out of training. But I couldn\u2019t really train.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn particular it was mainly around my kicking. My kicking is one of my strengths so when it\u2019s going badly you want to just get reps in and get confidence back, and kick your way out of it. But I couldn\u2019t do that because I was trying to manage the load.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
\u201cDeep down all year, I knew the shoulder was stuffed. I hurt it for the first time in Geelong this time last year when we went over there to play a practice game. And then throughout the year I kept getting innocuous knocks, and it got worse and worse. And then I hurt it really badly in the last game against Brisbane. It was pretty rooted. It had a few tears and a fracture. It was a bit debilitating.\u201d<\/p>\n
The injuries then had an impact on Sicily\u2019s leadership. He is of the walk the talk attitude to leading, and walking is harder with a crook hip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the biggest challenge because, all right, you can talk and do this stuff that the captain does during the week around training standards \u2013 what does \u2018Mitch\u2019 [Sam Mitchell] want us to do this week? What are we trying to execute? [I\u2019m] talking out on the track about what I\u2019m seeing, giving feedback, everything like that, but that stuff\u2019s a lot easier when you\u2019re playing well. It didn\u2019t fall away because I wasn\u2019t playing well, but you\u2019d sort of rather play well than lead well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twelve months ago, Sicily was coming off having his other shoulder reconstructed. This year has been the same rehab process, but not the same time frame. They have learnt from that experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast time we went too quick, and I reckon I paid the price for it \u2013 not having enough work done and taking it too fast, where I feel like it\u2019s been more gradual this off season, and now I\u2019m like, \u2018Hurry up. Get me involved. I want to play\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sicily expects to play in opening round against the Giants.<\/p>\n
The evolution of leadership<\/p>\n
In his first year as captain, Sicily remembers yelling at one of the first- or second-year Hawks on the training track and coming to a realisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, they\u2019re not ready for that. The group\u2019s not ready for that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhereas now, if no one yells at me or someone doesn\u2019t yell at someone [else], then I\u2019m like, \u2018What are we doing? We are going too easy on each other\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea of co-captains didn\u2019t come about because of Sicily\u2019s form last year. A change had been coming for a while. As a coach, Mitchell liked the idea of empowering more players. As a defender, Sicily welcomed the idea of having another strong voice up the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cMitch, in particular, has really driven since early days… We want everyone in here to lead in some way. And we all believe that now and that\u2019s the best way to approach it,\u201d Sicily explained.<\/p>\n
![\"Sicily](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4277814b59e0823349d50a96f1c6ac1c7d6e0b37.jpeg\")
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Sicily and coach Sam Mitchell have empowered Hawthorn\u2019s other leaders to step up.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the start of the pre-season [general manager of football] Rob [McCartney], Mitch, [and] Jenni [Screen, head of leadership and development, and a silver and bronze Olympic medallist with the Opals] all met and discussed the leadership and said how do we want it to look? It can be anything: one captain, two captains? Three? Do we do 12 in the leadership group? We can do anything. And we fell on the co-captaincy as the best method and best way leadership for this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was not a process that landed on Sicily and Newcombe because they couldn\u2019t be split, but started with the idea of joint captains and arrived at them as the best people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we were thinking was I can control the back end, and Jai can control the midfield and the front end. And it makes it a bit easier,\u201d Sicily said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have so many players on the field, and even at training things can get missed because I don\u2019t see them, or I don\u2019t have a complete grasp on what the mids are doing, or what they\u2019re trying to work on, so I can\u2019t drive that standard, and I don\u2019t have enough opportunity to give input.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo being able to broaden it out and have two of us as captains just makes it easier on game day, or training.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"It](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/abdb8f22226be90933ad68d45a68c05035517934.jpeg\")
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It will be a new-look Hawthorn midfield without James Worpel (now at Geelong) and Will Day (injured yet again).Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
The one who got away<\/p>\n
The story of the summer at Hawthorn was actually what didn\u2019t happen. The Hawks didn\u2019t get Zach Merrett. They wanted and expected to have a changed midfield this year, but now they have seen James Worpel leave as a free agent, while Merrett stayed put<\/a> and Will Day is injured again<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even Sicily had a moment to think, \u2018Gee that didn\u2019t go to plan\u2019.<\/p>\n How, or where, then, do they get better?<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, that\u2019s the obvious question everyone will be asking,\u201d Sicily said.<\/p>\n Zach Merrett and Sicily were rival first-year captains in 2023. Much has changed since then.Credit: Eddie Jim<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t recall myself thinking it, but there would have been like a moment of like, \u2018Oh shit, OK\u2019 [when the Merrett deal fell over]. But I think being around this place now in the upgraded facilities [at Dingley], it feels like we\u2019re here all the time because we want to be all here all the time. So there\u2019s going to be a sort of organic growth from the existing playing group, but there\u2019s always a diamond in a rough when things like this happen.<\/p>\n \u201cConnor Macdonald\u2019s been looking really good, dynamic in the midfield. Wardie [Josh Ward] has been awesome. Wiz [Nick Watson] has been awesome. Those three guys have probably been our best trainers for the pre-season, and that\u2019s all probably based off opportunity and a little window of, \u2018OK, such and such is gone. Why can\u2019t it be me?\u2019 And that could be even be Ollie Greeves; he\u2019s come in and been training really well.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s the funny one in the draft that people [recruiters] were focusing on what he\u2019s not good at, and forgetting what he is good at. He looks good.\u201d<\/p>\n As captain, Sicily said he was not troubled by the idea of another club\u2019s captain being prepared to walk out on that playing group.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not in his shoes,\u201d he said of Merrett.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what he sees day to day, or what feedback he\u2019s given to the club, and I don\u2019t really know Zach that well, I only ever met him at the Brownlow, so I don\u2019t know what type of person he is.\u201d<\/p>\n Sicily is not gnashing his teeth over trades that didn\u2019t happen. He says what he thinks, and he acts on it. It\u2019s the passion in him that doesn\u2019t want to be silenced. This year he will embrace it.<\/p>\n![\"Zach](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/fcbebb5a1106f266514bf02dd6703b12f3f49cc8.jpeg\")
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