While Hawthorn's major announcement on Friday was that Jarryd Roughead had been appointed as their new captain, the man himself deftly put the elevation into perspective.
Roughead, 29, was cleared of cancer only in December, and until that point had thought he may not play again until midway through this year once his treatment had finished. Roughead had a melanoma removed from his lip in 2015 and in May last year it was diagnosed that it had spread to his lungs.
While football is, and remains, important to him, the four-time premiership star now understands there is far more to life.
"I thought footy was everything up until what happened. Now that I have gone through what I have, you understand that footy is only going to be 15, 16 years of my life in terms of playing," he said in a reflective moment.
"I want to potentially live to be a dad or grandad. That's one of the things the (doctor) said when I got the all clear, that he wants to see me become a grandad. That means more than just 15 years of footy. I guess because we are in Melbourne, it's a fish bowl with footy, that we get caught up in footy so much rather than everyday life and what it feels like to be alive."
Roughead knows what it's like to have that joy removed when it emerged the cancer had returned. The football world rallied around him and his family, and hoped the immunotherapy treatment he was to receive would do the job. It did.
He understands there will be questions as to whether it's in his best interest to have taken on the top leadership position from Luke Hodge so soon after returning from a season where he did not play a match but insists there are no concerns. He said the Hawks had consulted his doctors before rubber-stamping his promotion, which initially came from a vote among players at a pre-season camp in Queensland before Christmas.
"I think it will be a question asked from the outside to other people. I guess from being given the all-clear in December, I have kind of just wanted to be treated as normal and as part of the playing group that is someone coming back from injury, or in my case it's a little bit different," he said.
"But I don't see why I have to be treated different, the worries of stress or anything like that, because what's happened.
"I think they (Hawks) did a fair bit of talk with doctors and other people outside of the footy club to make sure it was all going to be good."
He was informed of his appointment early on Friday morning before the new-look Hawks, without fellow premiership stars Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis who have moved on to other clubs, took to the training track for match simulation. Roughead said he expected to play his first match since the 2015 grand final in next month's pre-season competition.
"With what happened, the idea was, I thought I was still going to be missing six months of footy with treatment. To get the news that we got in December and then sitting here today, it has been a pretty cool six months," he said.
Roughead vowed to be his own man when it came to replacing three-time premiership skipper Hodge – one of the greatest captains in the history of the VFL/AFL.
"I guess being a vice-captain for the past five or six years, it's always in your mind, what if, if Hodgey steps aside. Obviously, with a couple of boys leaving at the end of last year, and Hodgey's decision, it opened up the chance for this to happen. With the blessing of the boys and the backing from them, it gives you pretty good confidence going into this year knowing you can lead the boys out there week in, week out," he said.
Lewis, who had also been a vice-captain, would have also been a strong captaincy candidate had he not left and joined Melbourne. Mitchell, Hodge's predecessor, had also left over summer, in his case linking with West Coast.
Roughead said boom recruits Tom Mitchell and Jaegar O'Meara had fitted in well and were lifting their training programs, although neither took part in match simulation on Friday.
The loss of Mitchell and Lewis has meant the Hawks have unveiled a new leadership group. Liam Shiels, Ben Stratton and Jack Gunston have been voted into the seven-man party by teammates, joining Josh Gibson, Isaac Smith and Hodge. Smith and Shiels will be joint vice-captains.