Sitting down a few years ago with Paul Kelly and Michael Voss for the AFL documentary The Chosen Few, we all agreed: Kernahan was the captain we aspired to be.

It says a lot about the way he played the game at Carlton that "Sticks" had such a big influence on two of the best leaders of the modern era in Kelly and Voss.

Now it's interesting to watch the new breed of captains create their own legacy.

At different times the leadership of Trent Cotchin and Marc Murphy has been maligned, but there seems to be a real steeliness about the way they're playing this year.

Cotchin has recaptured the form that saw him share the Brownlow Medal with Sam Mitchell in 2012. He's no longer just accumulating behind the ball, but having an influence on the game.

Murphy is in a similar boat. Being in a losing side, he doesn't always get the accolades he deserves, but right now he's setting a great example for his younger teammates.

Maybe that comes with a bit of experience, and growing into the role.

Scott Pendlebury might have had a quieter start to the season by his lofty standards, but in recent weeks he has lifted the Magpies out of their slump.

But while those guys are fantastic captains in their own right, I still believe Joel Selwood is the best leader in the competition by the length of the Flemington straight.

I've got no doubt Selwood not only inspires his own team, but also many other players in the competition, such is his will at the contest.

While we're only privy to what Selwood does as skipper on the field, in that domain he's head and shoulders above the rest.

This doesn't just stem from last week's heroics, but a large body of work since he started.

Many at Geelong will tell you that from the day he walked in the door at Kardinia Park, Selwood was bound to become captain.

Not everyone can be a Kernahan or a Selwood, so the most important thing about leadership is doing it your way.

There are those who inspire with their words, and others who lead through their actions.

Selwood's obvious strength is his attack on the ball. While I've always regarded Kangaroos legend Glenn Archer as the hardest player at the footy in my time, Selwood has become his rival in that department.

This is no disrespect to a number of others, including Patrick Dangerfield, who definitely puts his head over it, but right now Selwood sits comfortably alongside Archer as the toughest player I've seen.

For a guy who's so combative, he's also been incredibly resilient.

He's the sort of the player who might normally have struggled to make it past 200 games, such is the pounding his body has taken, but he's rarely missing.

It reminds me of that scene from Rocky IV where Ivan Drago says: "He's not human, he's made of iron." In a lot of ways, Joel is footy's Rocky Balboa.

His toughness should really come as no surprise given he had to fight three brothers for every kick or scrap of food when he was younger.

It's also because of that toughness that Selwood's skill and ability to embrace the big moment is often overlooked.

He rarely misses a goal when it matters. A great example came in round nine against the Bulldogs, when Travis Cloke gave away that free kick and 50-metre penalty at the start of the final term.

Selwood calmly went back and slotted the goal from 40 metres out, grabbing the momentum for the Cats, who went on to win.

I've always believed those moments belong to the big forwards, with midfielders more the accumulators through the middle.

But that's all changed, with the likes of Selwood, Dangerfield and even Marcus Bontempelli exerting a similar influence with clutch goals.

Given the level Selwood reached so early in his career, you'd have thought he was hard pressed to improve, but the scary thing about his 2017 season is that he's only got better.

At 29, that's no mean feat and one of the reasons why Selwood is the current-day Stephen Kernahan, inspiring the AFL's next generation.