Lumumba up for the challenge

FORMER Collingwood star Heritier Lumumba has made an immediate impact at Melbourne, joining the leadership group for the coming season.

Lumumba is part of a sixman group that will have Nathan Jones as the skipper.

It will be the first time since Brad Green led the Demons in 2011 that they have not had cocaptains. Jack Grimes, who stepped down from the captaincy after last season, remains in the leadership group.

Grimes ($398,100) could loom as a decent mid-price SuperCoach option in defence, while Lumumba ($417,000) will also have admirers.

Lumumba is in his first year at Melbourne after a successful but occasionally rocky spell at Collingwood.

“It shows what high standards he has,” coach Paul Roos said. “There are a lot of rumours, a lot of talk about Heritier, which surprised me.

“The players would agree we’ve seen nothing but high standards, nothing but a guy who’s been compliant and wants to drive the group.”

Jones, Melbourne’s most expensive SuperCoach player at $581,200, was the obvious choice to lead the team again.

“We’ll continue to raise the bar and raise the standards as leaders as much as we can,” the star midfielder said.

“I’m really confident in the current list of players we’ve got and the direction the footy club has taken, that we’ll be back to being a great footy club again.”

Roos said he had an open mind whether the Demons should continue with co-captains. “I’m never 100 per cent sold ... one captain, two captains, three captains — I’ve seen them work in a lot of different formats,” he said.

Lynden Dunn was rewarded with the vice-captaincy, while Daniel Cross and Chris Dawes are the other members of the leadership group.

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