Exciting 21-yeard-old midfielder Brent Stanton has been given the honour of wearing the number 5 guernsey (made famous by James Hird) for the 2008 season.
 
Stanton, who was taken with pick 13 in the 2003 draft and has.played 76 games, said he was thrilled to be given the honour. Brent Stanton will move from number 24 to number 5.
 
Coach Matthew Knights discussed the matter with James Hird a few weeks ago and James was keen for the number to be used and not put away for any amount of time. Hird suggested the number be given to Stanton. 
 
Hird is currently in New York though has congratulated Stanton over the phone.

Stanton was one of a number of guernsey number changes.

Jay Neagle will move from number 34 to number 1. Jay's father Merv wore this guernsey successfully through the mid eighties and he was keen to wear it after a discussion with Knights.

Jay Nash will move from number 38 to number 17. Jay follows in the footsteps of his father who wore number 17 at Central Districts in South Australia.
 
New recruit, David Myers, will wear guernsey number 23. Fellow recruit, Tayte Pears, will wear the number 16 guernsey and Cale Hooker number 26. These allocations were made by Knights.

Darcy Daniher will wear guernsey number 28. He will carry on the tradition of Paul Weston and David Flood who could play key position at either end of the ground. Flood also coached Daniher to a TAC Cup Premiership this season at the Calder Cannons.

That leaves the numbers 24, 34, 38 and 44 currently vacant.
 
The player guernsey number list:
 

1          NEAGLE Jay                                                  

2          DYSON Ricky                                                            

3          GUMBLETON Scott                                                  

4          WATSON Jobe                                                          

5          STANTON Brent                               

6          MONFRIES Angus                                                     

7          JETTA Leroy                                                  

8          WINDERLICH Jason                                                 

9          RAMANAUSKAS Adam                                           

10        McVEIGH Mark                                                         

11        PEVERILL Damien                                                    

12        WELSH Andrew                                                        

13        LOVETT Andrew                                           

14        JOHNSON Jason                                                       

15        DEMPSEY Courtenay                                                

16        PEARS Tayte                                                              

17        NASH Jay                                                      

18        LLOYD Matthew                                                        

19        HILLE David                                      

20        SLATTERY Henry                                          

21        JOHNS Courtney                                                        

22        MICHAEL Mal

23        MYERS David

25        LUCAS Scott 

26        HOOKER Cale

27        LAYCOCK Jason      

28        DANIHER Darcy

29        DAVEY Alwyn           

30        RYDER Patrick           

31        FLETCHER Dustin     

32        LEE Andrew   

33        McPHEE Adam          

35        HISLOP Tom 

36        LONERGAN Sam

37        REIMERS Kyle

39        HOCKING Heath

40        DICK Dean (Rookie)

41        CHARTRES Danny (Rookie)  

42        LOVETT MURRAY Nathan   

43        HOULI Bachar