{"id":892057,"date":"2026-09-14T20:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T20:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892057\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T20:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T20:18:13","slug":"afl-finals-hawthorn-co-captain-jai-newcombe-on-his-no-fuss-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892057\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL Finals: Hawthorn co-captain Jai Newcombe on his no fuss leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jai Newcombe is the uncomplicated captain.<\/p>\n

The Hawthorn star will lead his side into a home preliminary final against Brisbane in front of a packed MCG on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

There will be no fuss, no fanfare and no appetite for a new approach.<\/p>\n

By design, Newcombe will simply continue being himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t need to overcomplicate it as much as it seems from the outside,\u201d Newcombe said of his introduction as co-captain alongside James Sicily this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to a position like this from the things you\u2019ve already been doing in a way, it\u2019s just a continuation of that, but there\u2019s a slightly bigger title next to your name.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty much the way I\u2019ve looked at it. I got some good feedback along the way about being able to stay who I was prior to the title, nothing changing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I thought was going to be really important when given the role at the start of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newcombe is modest. He says the club\u2019s strong position is making his evolution from tough-nosed clearance winner into a leader seamless.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an awesome year, it definitely helps being a competitive side and the club being in a strong position,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere hasn\u2019t been a hell of a lot to deal with and make it harder than it needed to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cSam (Mitchell, coach) has been great, Rob (McCartney, general manager) has been great with my role and what\u2019s expected of me, things like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been really easy to go and get after performing and being the leader that I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawthorn is the home side coming off a qualifying final triumph but is still the underdog after Brisbane\u2019s rampaging semi-final victory over Adelaide.<\/p>\n

The Lions copped a qualifying final reality check the week before, eerily similar to the one the Hawks received from their upcoming opponent this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the lessons for us were probably similar to what they just got against Sydney, to be fair,\u201d Newcombe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t strong enough, outworked around the footy, lot of those sort of things \u2013 a bit of an off weekend in a way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich happens from time to time, a bit of look-in-the-mirror stuff, they outclassed us completely up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published as AFL Finals: Hawthorn co-captain Jai Newcombe on his no fuss leadership<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jai Newcombe is the uncomplicated captain. The Hawthorn star will lead his side into a home preliminary final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[461840,461856,461827,376963,461849,461844,411314,436374,461852,376730,461843,461846,401260,461838,461831,461842,421028,376637,461833,638,76141,461848,461845,64,63,55,639,651,207148,3181,5588,387247,6854,461829,461859,461854,461839,377460,19100,36873,461828,1871,461832,14294,69201,64026,459218,461847,461837,43961,461851,436823,461841,461835,461858,461853,38920,64935,46907,461830,85,670,382205,400086,34326,461850,426766,393325,387552,77470,401890,388231,376555,376950,380911,377475,461857,397593,214758,98734,378969,461855,364611,461836,6618,461834,380446],"class_list":["post-892057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-s-inspired-co-captain","tag-s-rampaging-semi-final-victory","tag-s-strong-position","tag-a-bit","tag-a-competitive-side","tag-a-continuation","tag-a-hell","tag-a-home-preliminary-final","tag-a-leader-seamless","tag-a-lot","tag-a-new-approach-by-design","tag-a-packed-mcg","tag-a-position","tag-a-qualifying-final-reality-check","tag-a-qualifying-final-triumph","tag-a-slightly-bigger-title","tag-a-strong-position","tag-a-way","tag-adelaide-the-lions","tag-afl","tag-afl-finals","tag-an-awesome-year","tag-an-off-weekend","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brisbane","tag-co-captain","tag-coach","tag-front","tag-general-manager","tag-hawthorn","tag-hawthorn-co-captain-jai-newcombe","tag-his-evolution","tag-his-introduction","tag-his-no-fuss-leadership","tag-his-side","tag-jai-newcombe","tag-james-sicily","tag-just-the-challenge","tag-leadership","tag-look-in-the-mirror-stuff","tag-lot","tag-mccartney","tag-mitchell","tag-my-role","tag-newc","tag-newcombe","tag-newswire-sport","tag-night-there","tag-no-appetite","tag-no-fanfare","tag-no-fuss","tag-no-secret-formula","tag-no-fuss-finals-formula","tag-rob","tag-sam","tag-saturday","tag-some-good-feedback","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-the-club","tag-the-footy","tag-the-hawks","tag-the-hawthorn-star","tag-the-home-side","tag-the-leader","tag-the-lessons","tag-the-one","tag-the-outside","tag-the-player","tag-the-role","tag-the-start","tag-the-things","tag-the-title","tag-the-uncomplicated-captain","tag-the-underdog","tag-the-way","tag-the-week","tag-the-year","tag-their-upcoming-opponent","tag-this-year","tag-those-sort","tag-time","tag-tough-nosed-clearance-winner","tag-your-name"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892057","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=892057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}