The GIANTS’ emerging leaders visited the Royal Military College in Canberra last week to learn about leadership.

The visit, ahead of last weekend’s game against Port Adelaide at StarTrack Oval, was organised by Player Development Coordinator Simon Katich as part of his work with the club’s leadership groups.

“It was about instilling junior leadership so that’s why the emerging leaders were involved in it,” Katich said.

“The beauty is there were some really key points for them as junior leaders to get out of it, the military pride themselves on leadership being their main focus and producing a lot of young leaders.

“It’s all about trying to expose them to different experiences and the military pride themselves on teaching leadership.”

The GIANTS’ Emerging Leaders group consists of Devon Smith, Adam Treloar, Jeremy Cameron, Stephen Coniglio, Dylan Shiel, Jonathan Giles, Matt Buntine and Curtly Hampton, with the group working to become the next generation of leaders at the club.

“It’s not just people in formal leadership positions that should be leading, anyone can be in an informal situation and still lead by example,” Katich said.

“These boys are (though), they’ve been voted in that by their peers and we thought it was important they get exposed to these different learning experiences.”

Young midfielder Dylan Shiel said it was an invaluable experience for the group.

“The key things we took out of it was leading by example and setting the right example for your teammates as well,” Shiel said.

“To be able to take on their experiences, as they start at the same ages as us ... It’s really good to be able to listen to those sort of people.”

As a third-year player at the club and with 35 games under his belt, although he is just 21-years-old, Shiel is constantly working to improve his leadership.

“It’s something I’m working towards along with the other emerging leaders just trying to lead by example through my training and trying to convert that on the field.”

Last week’s presentation is just one of many leadership programs being implemented by Katich, after motivational speaker Barnaby Howarth spoke to the players last month and broadcaster Alan Jones addressed the leadership group earlier this week.