Appointed as interim captain during the week, Drew Petrie is preparing to lead the side for the first time this year and can’t wait.

“I was absolutely stoked when Brad told me,” Petrie said on the AFL Exchange podcast.

“Obviously the circumstances aren’t great for Andrew (Swallow) but to put a selfish spin on it, I’m absolutely pumped to be the captain over the next five weeks.

“That comes with responsibility and not just through performance. It’s about dragging the rest of your teammates up to a level where we can win some of these (last five) games.”

Petrie recognised the possibility of any member of the leadership group being named as the captain for the rest of 2013.

“There are plenty of players capable of filling in for Andrew. Obviously Jack (Ziebell) was the other vice-captain who it was probably out of.

“Boomer’s (Brent Harvey) been a captain, Wellsy (Daniel Wells) and also Scotty Thompson are capable of leading the side so it’s not necessarily all lumped on my shoulders for the last five weeks.”

With external speculation around Ziebell being the best man for the job, it would have been a choice that the number 20 would have happily accepted.

“If he had’ve got the position I would have been fine with it. I would have been happy to support him, he’s a potential future captain and even next year he might get a taste of it with Andrew out for the next six, eight, ten rounds of 2014.”

The position of captain comes with an extra workload.

“It’s about understanding everyone’s position, all 46 players, who’s playing, who’s not,” Petrie explained.

“I’ve made sure I was across all that sort of stuff and wandered past the coach’s office a few more times just to see if there was anything else he needed me to do.

With the absence of Swallow leaving a big hole in the midfield, it’s up to the whole group through the centre of the ground to stand up.

“It’s about sharing the load a bit more. There’ll be a gap in the midfield with Andrew now so whoever takes that spot in the side doesn’t necessarily mean they have to replace what he does but they have to push out five percent more every week to make sure we win.”