2009 season
It was an extremely impressive season for Nick Maxwell, who took the reins from Scott Burns as the Collingwood skipper. After a shaky start to the season which saw Maxwell miss rounds four and five through suspension (rough conduct), the 26-year-old played in the final 20 matches of the year and was a standout in September. He relished his new role down back, playing as a loose man in defence, which led to an average of four more possessions a game than in 2008 (13.4 in 2008 and 17.9 in 2009).
He was awarded for his efforts with several prestigious accolades during the Copeland Trophy night including the RT Rush Trophy (runner-up in the best and fairest), the Gavin Brown award (leading desire indicators), and the Bob Rose Trophy (best player in finals - tied with Heath Shaw).
Mick Malthouse was extremely complimentary of the skipper when the head coach addressed the audience during the Copeland Trophy night.
“I think it would be fair to say in the 25-odd years that I have coached, you have got the hallmarks and the making of one of the all-time great captains. Because you are selfless, you do aim high, you take people with you and (when) you look over your shoulder, there will be a stream of people following you and I think that’s one of your greatest attributes.”
2009 highlights
Round Nine v West Coast: In an important away match for the club, Maxwell led from the backline collecting 29 possessions and 12 marks. He played on a range of opponents including Ben McKinley and Quinten Lynch and managed to hold them goalless for the entire match. He polled three Brownlow votes for the match, the first for his career.
Mark Neeld (assistant forward coach) says: In his first year as captain he led very well and took his own game up a notch in terms of work rate, possessions gained and also his marking was another area he really improved on. He was second in the Copeland Trophy which tells you he had a very good year.
2009 AFL statistics
| G | K | H | D | M | G | B | T | C |
| 23 | 8.9/74.6% | 9.0/89.3% | 17.9/81.8% | 6.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 2.6 | 0.6 |
CTV
