Jobe Watson has played down the romantic notion of him following in the footsteps of his famous father Tim and captaining Essendon in 2010.

If Watson, who emulated his father in winning the Bombers' best and fairest for the first time in 2009, is appointed Essendon's captain in 2010 it would be the first time any AFL club has had a father and son combination both captain it on a full-time basis.

Watson snr captained the Bombers from 1989-91 in a decorated 307 game career and there are thousands of Essendon fans hoping to see his 24-year-old son follow in his footsteps in 2010 as the club searches for a new captain to replace the retired Matthew Lloyd.

However Watson says the captaincy is the furthest thing from his mind at present.

"I am not 100 percent sure on it," he said on Monday when asked about his captaincy ambitions in 2010.

"I always felt I would do it if I felt I was the best candidate but we haven't spoken about it as a group."

"I have to weigh up the pros and cons and where the club is at and where the list is at so to be perfectly honest I haven't given it (the captaincy) a lot of thought."

Watson said the fact his father also captained the Bombers had nothing to do with whether he should be given the job next year.

"It's nice to have history and all that sort of stuff but it doesn't help you," he said.

"What happens in the past doesn't help you win games in the future and you have to stand on your own two feet and work with what you have."

"It's a terrific rule to have father and sons be able to play at the same club but in the AFL industry you can never look back."

Watson said there were several candidates to take over the captaincy in 2010.

"We have got some fantastic candidates," he told Melbourne radio station SEN.

"Mark (McVeigh) would do a terrific job as would David Hille and Andrew Welsh and probably 'Fletch (Dustin Fletcher) could do it as well if he wanted to."

While Fletcher, who at 34 is now the AFL's oldest player following the recent retirement of Richmond's Matthew Richardson, is unlikely to be given the captaincy, his appointment would also mean a father/son combination captaining an AFL club for the first time given his father Ken captained Essendon from 1977-79.