The 29-year-old has won the job for the sixth successive season ahead of highly respected teammates Lenny Hayes - a former co-captain - and Brendon Goddard, who is out of contract at the end of the season.

Watters said last week he would not be considering co-captaincy in 2012.

The decision comes after Riewoldt admitted to having been distracted by a series of off-field issues, ranging from the serious illness his sister was battling, to the social media scandal involving him and teammate Sam Gilbert, and the public disgrace of his former manager Ricky Nixon.

Riewoldt also struggled for form last year and said in a post-season interview that his leadership had been put into question after a group of young teammates broke a drinking ban and curfew during a 2011 pre-season camp in New Zealand. ''Every year I've handled on-field and off-field, and this year I don't think I handled it as well as I have in the past,'' he said.

Watters told The Age at the weekend: ''The question of our culture is a fair question to ask and the playing group have spent time on this. They know what they want their club to look like. I want the whole leadership model to be reassessed, and that includes who our captain is and what our leadership is.