Jed Adcock will join some rare, and elite, company at the Brisbane Lions as just the fourth player in the Club’s combined 127-year history to hold the ‘Captain’ title while wearing the Number 7 guernsey.

He follows in the footsteps of two-time Fitzroy Best and Fairest Gordon Rattray, three-time Brownlow Medallist and Club Legend Haydn Bunton, and Lions Hall of Famer and Brownlow Medallist Allan Ruthven.

Please find below more information on each of three former Club Captains who famously wore the ‘Number 7’.

Gordon Rattray
Years: 1917, 1919-24, 1928
Years as Captain: 1923, 1928
Games: 87
Goals: 65

Gordon Rattray was a dynamic and brainy footballer who had a deadly left foot kick.

In fact, Roy Cazaly credited him with inventing the torpedo punt and it was said he originated the kick because his school team, Wesley College, did not have a big-marking side.

At the time, he was acknowledged as one of the longest kicks in the game who could pass with pinpoint precision. He could also turn brilliantly and had a burst of speed.

Fitzroy Coach Percy Parratt rushed him into the Fitzroy side in 1917 and he played in the losing Grand Final side in that same year, before immediately leaving to go and serve in the War.

He returned the following year, and went on to prove a key player in Fitzroy’s 1922 premiership win, represented Victoria on five occasions, and win the Club’s Best and Fairest award twice – in 1919 and 1921.

He skippered Fitzroy in 1923 and 1928 and coached the Club in 1928, and again from 1937-39.

Haydn Bunton
Years: 1931-1937, 1942
Years as Captain: 1932, 1936-37
Games: 119
Goals: 209

Haydn Bunton is a true Club Legend in every sense of the word.

Bunton's matinee idol looks might have seemed more suited to the silver screen, but many argue that he was the greatest player our game has ever seen.

A football prodigy in his home town of Albury, Bunton quickly became the target of every VFL club. But it ended up being Fitzroy who were the fortunate ones to secure his signature and services.

A polished rover, he made his League debut as a 19 year-old in 1931 and took little time to assert his authority on the competition.

Remarkably, Bunton won the coveted Brownlow Medal in each of his first two seasons of League football and finished Runner-Up in 1934, before following up with a record third Medal triumph in 1936.

Throughout a career which spanned eight seasons and produced only 119 matches, Bunton also took home two Club Best & Fairest awards, spent six years as Fitzroy Captain, and even coached the Club for 18 matches in 1936.

He eventually departed Fitzroy in 1937 to pursue a career out West, before giving army service to his country during World War 2.

Bunton returned to Fitzroy briefly in 1942, but officially hung up the boots just two matches later.

Sadly, his life was cut too short at just 44 years of age when he was tragically killed in a car accident in 1955.

But in Australian Football, and at the Brisbane Lions, the Legend of Haydn Bunton will forever live on.

Watch Haydn Bunton’s Hall of Fame highlights

Allan Ruthven
Years: 1940-54
Years as Captain: 1948, 1950-54
Games: 222
Goals: 442

Born and raised in the Fitzroy area, Allan Ruthven did it all.

Nicknamed ‘The Baron' after Australian Governor General Baron Hore-Ruthven, he was a brilliant rover who was rarely beaten for the ball, and would use his possessions to great effect.

He achieved almost everything imaginable in the game throughout his decorated career.

He won five Best & Fairest awards, spent six seasons as Captain, three years as Captain-Coach, was an integral member of Fitzroy's 1944 Premiership side, and topped it all off with the 1950 Brownlow Medal.

Ruthven also proved deadly around goals, booting a total of 442 goals in his 222 matches and leading the Club's goal-kicking on three occasions. Not bad for a 173cm midfielder.

There's no doubting 'The Baron' made a lasting impression at the Maroons – and was duly recognised as one of the Brisbane Lions’ inaugural Hall of Fame inductees in 2012.

Watch Allan Ruthven’s Hall of Fame highlights