HAD Jarryd Roughead announced that he was cancer free but retired from football, for Hawthorn people and the football world in general it would have been sufficient.

Had he come back for even one game of AFL football, that too would have been sufficient.

Remember Jason McCartney? He only played one game of League footy after surviving the Bali bombing and that was enough to satisfy us all.

Had Roughead come back and played another season or two, that would have been in the realms of Boy's Own Annual stuff.

But the news that Roughead will assume the Hawthorn captaincy in the same season he resumes his career after the return of a melanoma that threatened not just his footy career but his life?

Now we're venturing into Greatest Footy Stories Ever Told territory.

Grave fears were held for Roughead's health when news emerged last May that he was again undergoing treatment for melanoma. It was his lip in 2015 and his chest in 2016, but the immunotherapy treatment worked and the news emerged late last year that he was cancer free.

Still, it was inconceivable that he would add the captaincy to the already rigorous requirements of returning to competitive football after 12 months away. Let's not forget that Roughead missed the first two months of last season after surgery to repair an injured PCL – so there was that for him to take into consideration as well.

But talk to Hawthorn people – and there were heaps of them standing on the boundary line at the Ricoh Centre on Friday watching training with smiles as wide as the grandstand – and it was almost a matter of how could they not make him captain.

The obvious question is will the captaincy be an extra and unwanted burden on Roughead, who turns 30 on Monday? For his part, Roughead has considered himself to be a regular member of the playing group from the time he was given the medical all-clear in December.

As he explained on Friday, "I don't see why I have to be treated any differently. There are no worries or stress just because of what happened."

One Hawthorn official said Roughead was such a natural leader around the football club that many of the requirements of the captaincy were part of his every day make-up. Adding the (c) next to his name won't change the way he plays, prepares and interacts.

For Hawthorn the change of captaincy comes at the right time. Roughead has huge shoes to fill, with Luke Hodge generally considered as fine a captain as there has been in the modern era.

But the Hawks are transitioning. Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis are gone and Hodge is likely playing his final season. Liam Shiels and Isaac Smith are potential future captains (and this year's vice-captains) and then there's Jaeger O'Meara, who won't feature in the leadership group in 2017 but who could be the face of the club in the near future.

Giving Roughead the captaincy is also the final tip of the cap to the transformative 2004 national draft, Alastair Clarkson's first as coach, which changed the face of the club. Roughead, Lewis and Lance Franklin arrived, all within the first seven picks.

They translated Clarkson's vision for the Hawks and drove it on the ground. One of them had to captain the club at some stage and while Franklin was probably unlikely to get the nod, even if he did stay, Lewis and Roughead both were deserving.

As it is, Lewis is no longer at the club, but given the dramatic back story surrounding Roughead, this is an inspired choice at precisely the right time.

And if it wasn't already, the season opener against Essendon at the MCG on March 25 now shapes as one of the most compelling round one games in living memory. And you think Roughead won't need to say much before the opening bounce.

His being out there should be all his teammates will need.