Lee Coghlan and Nick Stagg have been appointed co-captains to replace star midfielder Blair Holmes, who led the Dragons to their most recent Bendigo Football Netball League premiership in 2016.

Holmes, who will remain at the club as a player, had shared the captaincy with Stagg for the 2019 season.

"Blair has been such a great captain for so long it was a great transition for Blair and Staggy to jointly do the role and then for Staggy to take over,'' Sandhurst coach Ashley Connick said.

"Staggy was the one who approached me to say it would be a great thing for him to share the captaincy with Lee.

"Captaincy won't change what Lee does around the club, but it's good recognition and he deserves to be captain of Sandhurst.

"Lee's like a joint coach at training and he's fantastic with the guys."

Coghlan said he was proud to co-captain the club he's represented for the past 13 years.

"I loved playing under Blair and then Blair and Staggy,'' Coghlan said.

"I'm really looking forward to doing this alongside Staggy because we've come through the ranks together.

"It is an honour because it's a club that has a lot of history.

"I'm really looking forward to it."

Stagg, who said it wasn't a hard decision to share the captaincy with his long-time team-mate, paid tribute to his outgoing skipper.

"Blair is well-spoken at our club as one of the best captains around,'' he said.

"It was nice to do it with him in 2019 and learn off the way he went about it.

"Blair was a captain where his actions did a lot of his speaking and that's the way I'd like people to look at me after I'm done.

"Put my body on the line, do the right thing by the team and that sort of thing."

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Knee tendonitis forced Stagg to miss most of the pre-Christmas training with the Dragons.

The hard-working midfielder was confident he'd be right to play round one against Strathfieldsaye on Good Friday.

"I've managed to get on top of the knee issue and, touch wood, I'm good to go now,'' Stagg said.

"It was worrying there for a bit, but since the start of this year I've been going to training and I'm right to go."

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Coghlan missed the 2019 season after undergoing a knee reconstruction.

Last week he played his first game in almost two years when the Dragons held an intra-club trial match.

"My knee is feeling really good,'' Coghlan said.

"I got through an intra-club game last week and I was really glad to tick that box off.

"It was only an intra-club game, so I'm looking forward to a couple of practice matches we have in the next few weeks.

"I'm hoping every game I get a bit more confident with it.

"I'm really just excited to play footy again, to tell you the truth.

"Fingers crossed that we can all get out there and play. We need community sport back up and rolling."

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