HONEST as ever, Adam Simpson admits he's found considerable relief since relinquishing the North Melbourne captaincy.

Simpson vacated the post in November after a five-year tenure and North players, coaches and key administrators chose fellow midfielder Brent Harvey as his successor.

In his 16th season on the Roos' list and with 288 games to his credit, Simpson has enjoyed a seamless return from skipper to senior player.

"When you're captain you seem to get all the problems of everyone," he said. "Whether it's got anything to do with you or not, it doesn't matter.

"You always get filled in on the issues and you're always asked your opinion on how something should be dealt with. Sometimes they act on it, sometimes they don't but you're always part of the process.

"I think the club has deliberately kept me away from that."

Simpson hailed the way Harvey has embraced his responsibilities, acknowledging that "he's done things this pre-season that he would never have done in terms of leadership before."

After reaching the finals again in 2008, the 32-year-old believes the Roos will find greater strengths with a fresh voice in charge and hopes those fortunes extend to his own campaign; citing former Melbourne captain David Neitz's injury-forced retirement as some motivation behind his decision.

"Nothing lasts forever," he said. "When I made the decision I was very comfortable with it. And if it doesn't work out on-field, you don't have the burden of saying, 'You can't drop the captain'.

"If you're captain [and want to hang up the boots early] you can't really do it mid-stream. If you look at Neitz and how he went out, it left a bit of a hole in terms of the development of the next guy.

"I've passed it on knowing that Brent Harvey's going to be around for the next three or four years."

Simpson added that there have been some instances where Harvey has used him as a sounding board but a decade together has softened the need to mentor him.

"He knows how I feel about things before he even asks me," Simpson said. "I get kept in the loop a little bit and, in terms of making decisions, the leadership group we've got now is pretty mature.

"I've got no problem with them making calls without asking me. That's what we're trying to encourage at the moment.

"Brent Harvey's been amazing. It's been really good for him to be put in the deep end and he's responded really well to some issues.

"At the same time I've been released from some duties and I've had more time to spend with the family."