Fremantle Dockers star Ange Stannett deserves to be captain, but not when she’s missing 2024 season

Ange Stannett deserves to be Fremantle captain and has everything it takes to be the club’s skipper this year - well, almost everything. The only thing she’s missing is the ability to take to the field for a single second of the upcoming AFLW season. Stannett herself admits she was “taken back” to be voted in by the players and coaching staff, in a decision ratified by the board, given the ACL injury she sustained in May. And while the versatile Docker says “it doesn’t change the way you show up for the group,“ that’s not entirely true. Nobody is questioning Stannett’s leadership credentials, which include four best clubwoman awards and last year’s best and fairest, and the 27-year-old is clearly beloved amongst the playing group. But for a side that is already without its best-ever player in Kiara Bowers, who is sitting out the season due to pregnancy, it’s a bizarre move, to say the least from the Dockers. Even if the vote count was overwhelmingly in favour of Stannett, given her circumstances, should the board have ratified it? Nobody wants to take the shine away from her promotion, but when you can’t physically do the job, are you the right woman for it? These are both legitimate questions for the Dockers to answer and ones that will impact their upcoming campaign. And because this would never happen in the AFL. Imagine, when Nat Fyfe stepped down before the 2023 season, the Dockers announced he would be replaced by a player who won’t feature in a single game for the entire year. When Sydney announced Callum Mills would be the sole skipper, promoted from a co-captaincy role, it raised eyebrows - but he is at least a chance to return next week and play their seven remaining home and away games, plus finals. Alex Pearce is currently injured, with Fremantle vice-captains Andrew Brayshaw and Caleb Serong stepping up in the meantime. For the AFLW side, they will do the same. Splitting the duties between Stannett’s new deputies, but for all nine games of Season 9. What makes the decision even more head-scratching is that Miller is one of those. Unlike Fyfe, she did not step down. She nominated for the vote and lost. Stannett acknowledged this on Wednesday, saying that she wanted “to be sensitive” around Miller’s feelings. The former captain would have every right to feel bemused - and a little insulted - that she has been demoted into the role on a casual basis throughout 2024. It’s understood Miller turned down rival interest to remain with the club when suitors came knocking. You couldn’t blame her for thinking she should have answered the door.