Nathan van Berlo says he feels better prepared to lead the Club this season after a difficult first year as skipper in 2011.

Van Berlo, 25, became the youngest-ever player and first non-South Australian to captain the Crows last year following the retirement of dual-premiership player Simon Goodwin at the end of 2010.

The hard-working West Australian faced significant challenges in the role including a disappointing season on the field, which ultimately led to the resignation of long-serving coach Neil Craig in July.

Speaking after being appointed as captain for a second year on Thursday, van Berlo said he’d learned valuable lessons from his tough initiation.

“I was under no illusions when I was appointed that it was going to be an easy run,” van Berlo said.

“There were probably more challenges than I would’ve liked, but later in the year it dawned on me that when times are tough you need to lean on the people around you and at other times really take control yourself.

“I think that’s what all the senior players learned last year, that when the chips were down we needed to stand up ourselves, really take responsibility for our own performances and try to drag other guys along with us.

“I think that helped us to bond together as a group and also helped me prove to myself that I’m capable of being the leader that I want to be.

“It’s a huge honour to be captain of this Club.

“Although I’m from interstate, I’m certainly very passionate about the Adelaide Football Club and its supporters.”

Van Berlo will head up a five-man leadership group, which also consists of Scott Thompson (vice-captain), Ben Rutten (deputy vice-captain) and first-time leaders Patrick Dangerfield and Rory Sloane.

Adelaide’s leadership program was overhauled at the end of last year, with the Club recruiting former CEO of Leading Teams New Zealand and Victorian Amateur League coach Paddy Steinfort to facilitate a new program.

As a result, the Crows adopted a different approach to selecting the 2012 leadership group, with the final decision being made by the coaches without a vote of the players.

However, the result was still the same as last year, with van Berlo emerging as the unanimous choice as captain.

“I was only here two weeks and couldn’t see anyone else being skipper,” new coach Brenton Sanderson said.

“Not because we haven’t got people ready to step up, but because ‘VB’ is so good.

“VB is an outstanding young leader and I know he’s going to take this club forward.

“Every person we spoke to whether it was the CEO (Steven Trigg), the senior players or coaches, there was no one who was going to go past ‘VB’ in that leadership role.

“He just does everything right.

“He’s an animal in the gym.

“He wins all the runs, he trains his heart out and he’s really hard on his teammates as well.

“In his second year, I think he’s really going to blossom into being one of the outstanding captains of the AFL.

“We’re going to give him a lot more empowerment this year to pull the trigger on decisions, both on and off the field.”

A member of the senior leadership group last year, veteran Michael Doughty has stepped aside in 2012, but will act as a mentor to the ‘emerging leaders’ group, which is comprised of Kurt Tippett, Richard Douglas, Bernie Vince, Sam Jacobs, Jared Petrenko and David Mackay.

“In the first week we came back to training, ‘Dogga’ (Doughty) caught up with Paddy Steinfort and then me a few weeks later, just having a think through it,” Sanderson said.

“He wants to focus on his footy, but at the same time he was really adamant that his leadership won’t change … and he was really keen to take a role with that next group of emerging leaders coming through.

“We think we’re quite progressive and innovative having that group of six guys, who we hope are going to be future leaders as well.”

Van Berlo said the creation of an emerging leaders group would be of great benefit to the senior leadership group.

“With the leadership group that we’ve got this year and also the emerging leaders, it will help us reach out to every player in the playing group and I think they’ll enjoy the extra responsibility they’re going to get,” he said.

“It’ll make us stronger as a football club because … hopefully come this time next year we’ll have a 12-15 leaders to pick from for the leadership group.”

As the Crows prepare for the upcoming season, click here to browse 2012 Membership and join the Club from only $75 (Adult) and $45 (Junior)