ONE of the AFL's most respected skippers, Brisbane Lion Jonathan Brown, says when it comes to captains, one voice in charge is better than two.

Although the Lions have not officially announced its leadership team for 2012, it is expected Brown will be the sole captain for the fourth consecutive year, after being a co-captain the previous two.

AFL clubs have had mixed leadership strategies in recent times, with Melbourne the latest club to go with co-captains, naming Jack Trengove and Jack Grimes last week.

Youth has also been a theme of the recent captaincy announcements, with 23-year-old Joel Selwood named the new captain of Geelong, 24-year-old Andrew Swallow taking over at North Melbourne, and Trengove, at 20, becoming the youngest captain in the game's history.

Brown, now 30, said choosing a captain/captains should be "horses for courses" depending on a club's needs, but felt a single voice was far more effective.

"Sometimes it can become, not a democracy, but decisions by committee all the time," Brown said.

"I enjoyed playing under Vossy (Michael Voss) as the one captain, but at the end of the day it's what the coach wants.

"I think captaincy is symbolic, you've got the 'C' beside your name, but the more guys you can get through displaying the right behaviours, [the better]. That's what we're starting to get at the Brisbane Lions which was, I thought, pretty lean there for a few years."

Brown also believes age is no barrier to captaincy.

He said experienced helped leadership but added it was the qualities and actions of those in charge that formed the team's direction.

"Melbourne have obviously deemed those guys (Trengove and Grimes) to display the right actions to carry them into the future so I think that's ultimately what it comes down to," he said.

"Leigh Matthews used to say that you don't get given the title of captain and then you start displaying the actions, it has to be the other way around."

With Mitch Clark heading to Melbourne in the off-season - and now in its leadership group - there is a potential vacancy at the Lions alongside Brown, Daniel Merrett, Jed Adcock, Josh Drummond and Tom Rockliff.

Brown said the growing strength of the Lions was the number of young voices that were starting to take ownership of the team at training.

"I think we've got a number of guys that are bracketed in a similar position. Daniel Rich has had a fantastic pre-season after an injury interrupted and disappointing season last year, he's been fantastic," Brown said.

"James Polkinghorne, Jack Redden, Matthew Leuenberger: I think there's five or six guys that are really pushing up to be in that leadership position and then I think we're in a good position with a lot of veterans that are healthy and have been training, so it's probably unfair to name one person."

After missing 12 games last season through two separate broken jaws, Brown said he would be aiming to play three of the four NAB Cup fixtures to get some continuity in his football.

Brisbane Lions open their NAB Cup account on February 25 with matches against Melbourne and Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium.

Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @mike_whiting.