Stephen Coniglio has been urged to relinquish the captaincy of the GWS Giants after yet another sub-par performance in his side’s semi-final loss to Geelong.
The hobbled Giants skipper managed just 14 disposals and one clearance in a 35-point loss to the Cats in Perth.
Coniglio’s disappointing showing was in line with his form during a stop-start 2021 season that has seen him play just seven games after suffering an injury to the syndesmosis tendon in his ankle in Round 3.
The 2021 season follows an extended run of poor form across the last two years that has seen the 27-year-old average just 19.1 disposals per game in the 23 matches he has played since signing a lucrative extension to remain at the club at the end of 2019.
That two-year stretch is a stark contrast to the 27.4 disposals per game he averaged in the two seasons leading up to the deal, where he was one of the league’s premier two-way midfielders.
Coniglio’s poor form last year resulted in him being sensationally axed from the team ahead of a must-win game, despite being the club’s captain and one of its marquee players.
Following the Giants’ loss, Brisbane Lions great Jonathan Brown said he would advise the struggling midfielder to give up the captaincy in order to rediscover his best form.
“Go away and focus on yourself, get yourself healthy without the added stress of being captain,” Brown told Fox Footy.
“Toby [Greene] has proved that he can be a very good captain. He needs to get rid of some of the peripheral incidents. I reckon if you give him the permanent captaincy, he may [get rid of the incidents], it might be the catalyst.
“This is more about Stephen Coniglio. Get yourself back to your best and relinquish the captaincy, I think it’ll ultimately help you as a player and you’ll be of more value to the Giants.
“It’s an enormously stressful situation to be captain of the club and worrying about your own spot in the team.
“So he does a press conference during the week and you can see it in his eyes he’s lacking confidence in himself and his position there.
“On the freight that he’s on, he has to be a star player. You can’t be a small role player if you’re on that sort of freight.”
Brown’s sentiment was echoed by former St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt, who said Coniglio couldn’t demand high standards of his teammates if he wasn’t delivering them himself.
“I think he would welcome the conversation because he looks uncomfortable with the title of captain,” he said.
“If it’s not Toby Greene, Josh Kelly has just re-committed to the club for a very long period of time, he’s had a really good year of football as well, so there are players there that can step up into the void.
“It’s not like they’re devoid of choice and if it frees him up, if it allows for him to focus on the other things he can control, I think it’s a win for everyone.
“When you don’t have the confidence in your own ability, how do you stand in the huddle before the game and eyeball each of your teammates and demand supreme effort, demand excellence, demand adherence to a role? You can’t do it.
“[We’ve seen great role-playing captains] but captains that have confidence in their ability to play a role. Right now, he doesn’t have confidence.
“Right now, he’s on big freight that could be club-crippling if they’re not able to turn him back into the player that he was. Maybe freeing him of that added responsibility is the quickest ticket to doing that.”