Jack Ziebell will lead a new-look leadership group in his fifth year as captain of the North Melbourne Football Club.

Luke McDonald and Jy Simpkin have been elected as co vice-captains, while Robbie Tarrant, Ben Cunnington, and Kayne Turner round out the group.

Ziebell said it was an honour to lead the club again and it was a testament to those around him.

“You never take a role like this lightly and I’ve been fortunate over the last few years to have some great support around me,” Ziebell said.

“With the group they’ve put together this year, I couldn’t be more confident in everyone’s skills and to welcome ‘Lukey’ [McDonald] and ‘Kayno’ [Turner] into the group for the first time.

“Luke obviously took eight years to get in the leadership group, but with a bit of growing up to be done in that time, he’s really matured into a fantastic AFL player. Obviously all the boys respect him and the way he goes about it.

“He sets the scene for us on the field, so it’s awesome he’s been rewarded with a role in the leadership group and I expect him to grow into that.

“We all know what Jy’s capable of, the last couple of years how much his games improved but the way he goes about it at training, the way he sets the example, but also these boys are incredible at building relationships with all the players.”

Injuries restricted Turner from playing a game in 2020, but he’s clearly held in high regard by his teammates.

“It’s awesome for ‘Kayno’ [Turner], he’s such an underrated footballer and person outside of our footy club in the general footy public,” Ziebell said.

“He’s deadset first picked in our team every week for what he does on the field and the way he carries himself throughout the footy club, so it’s a great opportunity for him to cement himself as a leader of the footy club.

“I’m very excited to welcome him in, it’s awesome because he’s got some great skills that are going to help complement us in what we do.

“We’ve all got different strengths in the leadership group and we’re going to be relying on that throughout the year and I can’t wait to get started, it’s going to be good fun.”

Ziebell said there are exciting times ahead with a host of new energy running through the club.

“Our job is really to support these guys, it’s their team, they are the guys who are going to take us forward from here and they’ve been doing an awesome job,” he added.

“It’s going to be so good to work with these boys especially because it’s their team now, these boys are doing all the work and they’ve got some great ideas and can’t wait to share it and get it all sorted.”