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Noah Anderson on becoming Gold Coast captain and hoping to keep best mate Rowell at Suns
Lachlan Geleit • February 12th, 2025 12:54 pm
Gold Coast star Noah Anderson became the AFL’s youngest current captain after ascending to his new leadership role last week.
While it’s a big responsibility for the 23-year-old to bear, the gun on-baller is certain he’s ready to step up after being involved with the club’s leadership group across the last four years.
After having captaincy in the back of his mind as a future goal for some time now, Anderson hopes to use the lessons he learned from the likes of Jarrod Witts and Touk Miller as he looks to lead the Suns into a new era under Damien Hardwick.
“I think it's something that maybe I've had in the back of my mind as a future goal,” Anderson told SEN Breakfast.
“I've been lucky enough to be exposed to the leadership group for the last four years. So, the older leaders of the group Jarrod Witts, Touk Miller, David Swallow and guys like that have taught me a lot of lessons throughout the last four years.
“It's something that I've kept in the back of my head as a goal to work towards in the future, but it's quite surreal that it's here now.
“(I learned) how to deal with different people, what different people need from a leadership perspective, when to take something on, when to hand something off to someone else and not to tire yourself out.
“There's still so much that I'll have to learn, and I understand that I'm not the finished product yet as a captain, but I feel really confident that I've got the support of the group … so I feel like I'm in a good spot to take it on.”
Apart from Anderson’s captaincy ascension, the Suns have been in the news recently with fellow star midfielder Matt Rowell coming out of contract at the end of the season.
With Rowell, who is best mates with Anderson, reportedly taking meetings with several Victorian clubs as he weighs up his future, the new skipper says it’s on himself and the club to convince the out-of-contract star to re-sign by continuing to progress both on and off-field.
“As a mate, we have really good, honest conversations,” Anderson said.
“I understand the position he's in. He's a superstar of the competition and obviously, I understand the speculation.
“I think it's on me as a captain now, Mac (Andrew) as a key player, and as a club that we have to continue to create the environment where he wants to stay, and he wants to play.
“Obviously, I think that looks like winning more games of footy and continuing the progress off-field as well.
“I think there's a lot of stuff that we're doing a lot of work in that you can't see yet, but hopefully that all tips over the edge this year.”
Gold Coast begin their 2025 campaign with an Opening Round clash against Essendon at People First Stadium on Saturday, March 8.
