UPDATED: Adelaide Football Club’s on-and-off-field transformation continues with larrikin forward Taylor Walker today confirmed as the club’s new captain.

“I’ve got 45 great mates sitting over here and I think we’re heading in the right direction,” Walker told a press conference at West Lakes today.

It follows last year’s sacking of coach Brenton Sanderson – replaced by Port Adelaide assistant Phil Walsh – and the appointment of Rugby Union stalwart Andrew Fagan as CEO.

Walsh stated in his initial media conference that he would “only select players that are totally committed to the team”, a mantra that seems borne out by the appointment of Walker, who in November shrugged off suggestions he could defect to cross-town rivals Port to ink a new long-term deal with the Crows.

“Every day, coming into the club, he’s all about making the team better,” said Walsh.

Rory Sloane and Patrick Dangerfield, who co-captained the team while now-ousted leader Nathan van Berlo was laid off with an Achilles injury, have yet to sign contract extensions, with the latter expected to court marquee offers as a free agent from Victorian clubs such as Geelong.

Walsh selected Walker from the club’s six-man senior leadership group elected by the players last month. The appointment was then ratified by the board, leaving van Berlo on the outer.

The Crows say the defensive midfielder, who captained 68 games in four seasons, will “continue to play an important role in the senior leadership group”.

The outgoing captain said in a statement: “I love the club and in particular the playing group, and am excited about being part of this new era.”

But Walsh hinted the appointment was not universally welcomed.

“I spoke with all the members of the leadership group about my decision; they all had a view,” he admitted, conceding there were some “strong views expressed”.

“This footy club’s not about blokes feeling sorry for themselves; say what you want to say, we’ll hear it — but (we’ll) get on with it.

“We all met (yesterday) and put it all out on the table…we had a ‘man conversation’ and we got on with it — that’s how we do business here.”

Walker backed his coach’s assertion that such testosterone-heavy debates were a feature of the club’s emerging culture: “We have Man Conversations at this footy club…(the players are) old enough and mature enough to take on the decision that Phil’s made.”

The crowd favourite, colloquially known as “Tex”, is a two-time leading goalkicker recruited from Broken Hill through the NSW Scholarship Program.

His 84 games since 2009 – kicking 197 goals – have been hindered by a serious knee injury in 2013, which saw him sidelined for a year. After returning in Round 9 last year against Collingwood, he went on to win the Best Team Man award at the club’s best and fairest.

“A little kid coming from Broken Hill, you only want to play footy, but now the opportunity’s arisen I’m really looking forward to it,” he said.

“I’ll evolve over time, I’ve learned a lot of things along my way and I’ll continue to learn (but) at the end of the day I’m not going to change Tex Walker.”

While Walsh praised the key forward’s “natural leadership attributes”, he remains a left-field appointment. He has a laconic public air, is an active and irreverent user of social media, and was mired in mild hot water in 2011 when television cameras spied him drinking in the stands with mates attending a Port Adelaide match.

He was in and out of the side in his early years under Neil Craig, who bemoaned his defensive pressure.

However, he has since established himself as one of the competition’s most imposing and exciting marking forwards.