First-year captains shoot for Grand Final berthSaturday, September 15, 2018 - 2:56 PM - by Chris Pike

SOUTH Fremantle's Dylan Main and West Perth's Aaron Black are both in their first seasons as captains at their respective clubs as they aim to lead their teams to a Grand Final appearance after Sunday's preliminary final.

Main and Black were appointed as the new captains at the Bulldogs and Falcons respectively in 2018 and both under similar circumstances with the former skippers continuing on playing, but standing down as skipper.

Ryan Cook had been captain at South Fremantle since 2012 and by leading the Bulldogs into battle for 117 matches, he became the longest-serving skipper in the history of the club. 

But he felt it was time to stand down while continuing his playing career in 2018 with Main chosen to be his successor.

Jay van Berlo initially shared the captaincy duties with Luke Tedesco at West Perth following the retirement of the inspirational Jason Salecic after the 2013 premiership.

Tedesco stood down as co-captain in 2016 leaving van Berlo to be sole skipper at the Falcons the past two years, but he too decided to step aside leading into 2018 with Black becoming the standout choice to lead West Perth forward.

Both men have gone on to have terrific seasons and proven themselves natural leaders as they prepare to lock horns in this Sunday's preliminary final at Fremantle Community Bank Oval with a spot in the 2018 WAFL Grand Final against Subiaco at Optus Stadium on the line.

Black might still only be 25 years of age, but he's packed a lot into his career already as a premiership player, Sandover Medallist, fairest and best winner, regular state representative and a life member at West Perth now with 171 games under his belt.

So he was a natural to be the new captain when van Berlo decided it was time for him to pass the baton on. He was excited at the prospect of being captain but also knew it was going to be a steep learning curve.

"It was a little bit surprising first of all for me to get the opportunity to be captain of the football. I never thought I'd get that opportunity and I'm still relatively young in terms of captaincy and that sort of thing," Black said.

"I was honoured to be given an opportunity and I knew personally, and the coaching staff knew and so did the senior players that I had a lot of things I needed to work on as a person, a footballer and a leader. 

"It was definitely going to challenge me in many ways being the leader of a group of 50 people when I still had so many things to work on, but I was buoyed and excited by the challenge. I wanted that opportunity to help move the footy club in the right direction and also better myself and challenge myself as a person.

"A lot of the things I've been able to do on-field might have come a little more naturally to me than I thought. When I'm out there it tends to come naturally and I've found that being able to help and direct other people has actually helped my performance. I'm no longer necessarily thinking about how I'm going, I'm thinking about what we're doing and how we can be successful."

Black has learned a lot and enjoyed the responsibility of being captain immensely, and now is excited to be leading the Falcons into a preliminary final and especially to feel as though all the pressure is on South Fremantle.

"Now heading into a prelim as the captain of the footy club for the first time is super exciting. I'm really looking forward to the challenge of leading a group who are young, plays exciting footy and we have an opportunity to do something special. It's been a great challenge and a really enjoyable year for me," Black said.

"I'm really looking forward to the game. We get an opportunity with limited pressure in comparison to South Fremantle coming off a win last week against Claremont, and obviously a reasonably ordinary performance against them the week before. 

"Many people have made us aware of how we went last time but in our opinion finals footy is a week by week thing and you are only as good as your last performance. 

"Anything can happen on any given day and we firmly believe that the work we've put in this year and the culture we have created, and style of football that we're playing is good enough to win a prelim final and a premiership if we get everything right on the day."

Main was always an exciting talent coming through the ranks at South Fremantle and he did end up drafted to West Coast on the back of that. Despite not breaking through for an AFL debut, he did develop well while at the Eagles and playing WAFL football with East Perth.

He returned to South Fremantle in 2016 and had an especially standout 2017 season as an inside midfielder with his consistency outstanding as he finished third in fairest and best voting only behind the brilliant Haiden Schloithe and Tim Kelly.

So when Cook decided not to be captain in 2018, the South Fremantle players had no trouble voting him in as captain and he's grown into the task nicely.

Whether playing in the midfield or with roles up forward, Main has had another strong season both in terms of production and leadership heading into this Sunday's preliminary final.

Main couldn’t fault his team's effort in last Sunday's second semi-final despite the 18-point loss to Subiaco, but the Bulldogs have earned the second chance by finishing second for a third straight season and he hopes they can capitalise to win their way into the Grand Final.

"Luckily, all the hard work throughout the home and away season lead to us gaining a second chance in the finals, so we cannot dwell on last weekend too much as we look forward to taking on West Perth this Sunday at Fremantle Oval," Main said.

"There is definitely some confidence that was taken out of the qualifying final against the Falcons, however we are expecting a totally different game then when we played them two weeks ago as they are a very talented side and I’m sure they will be hungry to win and bounce back as they did last weekend. 

"Nothing changes from our point of view, we just need to continue playing our brand of footy as we have shown it stands up against the best teams in the competition. 

"The Falcons have a really strong midfield group who performed well in their last game and I believe this Sunday's game will be won or lost in the midfield contest, however I’m backing our boys to get the choccies.

"We have been playing some good footy the last month or so and have really blossomed heading into this finals series, so our boys just need to continue to build on that for another couple of games."