Another way of looking at it is that as vice captain it's incumbent on him and other leaders to drive the standard and bring team mates along with him. If as a leader he's not capable of doing that then he wasn't suited to the job.

When I think about this part of the story it just seems implausible that standards were so poor and so far beyond fixable that they contributed in a material way to the vice captain wanting to leave the club. That narrative suits Essendon well though, you know, a club that needs to gaslight its members and media acolytes into thinking they're great and a destination of choice for committed footballers - which funnily enough - is something they've actually not been known for in recent times.