Essendon Coach John Worsfold says Jobe Watson emerged as the outstanding person for the captaincy after a rigorous process.

Watson was first appointed to the role ahead of the 2010 season and will lead the club for a seventh straight year in 2016.

Players were asked to rate their teammates across a range of criteria but didn't specifically state who should be Captain.

Watson, and the other members of the leadership group, emerged as the best players to lead the Club in 2016.

“He was the standout person for the role,” Worsfold said.

“Jobe was obviously very high on all of the criteria after looking at that data and talking to the coaching staff.

“He’s very keen to continue on in the role and do an even better job, from what he’s learnt over the last few years, going forward.”

The Club used a training camp in Healesville to hone in on the exact make up of the leadership group.

“We went through a pretty rigorous process where the whole playing group had a say on what leadership criteria they believe are going to be really important for them as a group,” Worsfold said.

“Once they’d identified five key criteria we asked them to rate the whole squad.

“That gave us a lot of information on where all the players sit in regards to showing leadership within different criteria.” 

Worsfold settled on a seven-man senior leadership group but said there were some quality leaders who could have been included. 

“When you look at the people making up our leadership group they’re pretty outstanding people and players so we’ve got seven in that group and there is great depth there,” he said.

“Just outside that group, we could have easily stretched that group out to ten or 12. 

“It was pretty close at the top of the voting system.

“So I think we’ve got great depth there.  There are guys who aren’t named in our senior leadership group that are great leaders around the Club in their own right.”