2024 Senior Men’s Leadership Group

The Norwood Football Club has finalised and announced its leadership group for season 2024. 

Jacob Kennerley was unveiled as the sole captain back in December, but the club announced the remaining three leaders, Jack Heard (VC), Declan Hamilton and Pierce Seymour at the 2024 Jumper Presentation.

Kennerley – who co-captained alongside the now retired Matthew Nunn last season – said the captaincy role meant a lot to him.

“It’s an honour to take on the role of captain at such a historic and proud club,” Kennerley said.

“I am super happy and grateful to be in the position – we have a really good, young group, there’s lots of fresh faces around which is good.

“Nunny and I worked well together last year, and that’s provided me with great experience and I am looking forward to continuing that.”

Kennerley, Hamilton and J. Heard have formed the leadership group in previous seasons, while Seymour is new to the role.

Norwood senior coach Jade Rawlings said the leaders were selected following a pre-season leadership program run by Greg Moulton.

“This pre-season we had nine players in player-mentor roles overseeing small groups of six to seven through the summer,” Rawlings said.

“And then we drew it down, we wanted to be a bit more refined with the leadership group – Kennerley was unanimous, Jack Heard will be our vice captain and Pierce and Dec to support.

“It’s a strong group, but then they are supported by the likes of Matt Panos, Harry Boyd, Brodie Carroll and Sam Morris, while Ben Simpson, Billy Cootee, Cory Stockdale and Matt Ling have been leaders in their past footy life.

Rawlings said several players had stepped up following the departure of Nunn and Nik Rokahr.

“We’re lucky to have that group, especially when you lose Nunn and Roks – they were pretty important leaders, but we feel as though there’s some others that are going to grow and jump up,” he said.

“Pierce has shown a real passion for Norwood – his game day performance has been really consistent. He’s got a capacity to really drive the group on the track and in our review or education sessions. So he’s got a real presence. He lives his life in a good way. He’s a quite mature guy, but knows how to interact with our younger group.

“Dec has a really consistent performer during my time at Norwood. He’s highly respected, very versatile and gives a lot of himself to the group and to our club.”

Norwood’s SANFLW co-captains are Stephanie Simmonds and Sophie Armitstead, the U18 captain is Luke Scott and U16 co-captains are Blake Jones and Lachie Smith.