MELBOURNE has confirmed three-time best and fairest winner Nathan Jones will be its sole captain for 2015, but the club has new leadership group for the upcoming season.

The Demons have appointed key defender Lynden Dunn as their vice-captain, after he joined the leadership group for the first time during last season.

It is a great effort by Dunn, who took his game to another level in 2014, finishing fourth in Melbourne’s best and fairest award.

Jack Grimes, who relinquished the co-captaincy after three seasons (two with Jack Trengove and one with Jones) in December last year, will remain in the leadership group for the fifth consecutive season.

Grimes – and Jones – were added into the leadership group for the 2011 season and have remained in it since.

Melbourne has also retained veteran Daniel Cross and key forward Chris Dawes in the leadership group, after they were added in April last year.

The duo replaced Mitch Clark, who retired at the time, and Trengove, who was sidelined and placed on the long-term injury list in 2014.

It is Dawes’ third season at the club after he played in Collingwood’s 2010 premiership.

Cross is now in his second year with the Demons after an outstanding 210-game career with the Western Bulldogs.

Boom recruit Heritier Lumumba – who played in the 2010 Collingwood premiership with Dawes – has also been named in the leadership group after joining the club last October.

It is a strong showing of Lumumba’s impact at the club already that he is in the leadership group in his first season at the club.

Defender Colin Garland, who opted out of the running for this year’s leadership group, and James Frawley, now at Hawthorn, are the only other changes from last year.

The leadership group was decided at the club’s 11-day pre-season camp in Maroochydore in January, but announced in February.