Former Fremantle Dockers midfielder Matt de Boer has continued his AFL resurgence by making it into the Greater Western Sydney leadership group.
De Boer, who was thrown a lifeline by GWS after being delisted by the Dockers in 2016, played 15 games for the Giants last year and earned a two-year contract extension.
Reigning Giants best and fairest Josh Kelly has been elevated to joint vice-captain in a five-man leadership group alongside Stephen Coniglio, with Callan Ward and Phil Davis remaining co-captains.
The leadership group has diminished from seven to five, with Heath Shaw and Dylan Shiel dropping out.
All-Australian Shiel was voted in again, but wants to develop his leadership skills outside the group.
Ward and Davis have been co-captains for each of the Giants' six previous seasons, sharing the role with Luke Power in the first year.
The sole newcomer to the leadership group is de Boer.
De Boer's career-revival follows his delisting by Fremantle in late 2016 following eight seasons and 138 games, including the 2013 grand final.
"I taught myself early to never rule anything out, I was always optimistic about my ability, what I can bring to a group," de Boer said.
"When I was playing at Peel I never dropped my bundle and tried to perform as best I could and we ended up winning the WAFL premiership that year.
"Something I was taught by (former Freo captain) Matthew Pavlich was excellence is a habit.
"I'm excited to try and bring a certain level of effort and intensity to the role and try and do it justice."
De Boer, who had to overcome hamstring issues before making his Giants senior debut in round nine, played 15 games and signed a two-year contract extension.
"Starting off with three hamstring injuries at a new club is never easy, but just continued to try and lead and drive standards," de Boer said.
Kelly was confident he could improve in a number of areas after developing into one of the competition's elite players last year.
"Something that I've always focused on is improving and continuing to get better,' Kelly said.
""For me, it's always improving my inside and contested ball game. I've always thought of myself as having a good balance of inside and outside footy.
"If I can continue to improve that and continue to hit the scoreboard and have an impact when I'm going forward, I feel like that will improve my game a fair bit as well."
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