Hooper has stepped into the captaincy position in a full-time role this year after sharing the leadership duties with Dave Dennis throughout last year's campaign.

However, the lively No.7 is confident that the Waratahs have established a solid leadership group that will be able to fill the hole left by Dennis.

"I think to be successful you've got to have everyone in some capacity doing something as a leader and I can think plenty of guys who have been here for most of the year wanting to put up their hand, wanting to be a part of that," he said. "We have to help each other fill in that void that Dave did leave, but there's always an opportunity for someone to step up."

Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson's primary challenge for Hooper in 2017 is to develop into a great leader and Gibson is confident that Hooper can rival John Eales as one of Australia's great captains in the future.

Hooper admits that he has areas to work on and is hopeful that his leadership will continue to develop in the coming years.

"I'd hope that I'm getting better as I go along and picking things up, I don't think you've got the magic recipe to start and neither do the people around you. So yes, definitely a learning thing for me, but hoping that I learn as I go."

Waratahs forward Jed Holloway was full of praise for his young captain and is confident that Hooper will thrive in his new role.

"I think he's more than capable of doing it, he's a great leader and he really knows what he wants from the team and he's been very successful in the way he does things around the team," he said. "He leads by example, which is a trait that I really like about him, he makes sure that he's really hard on himself and that flows through the rest of the team. I think he'll do a fine job this year by himself."

Despite the praise and talk about emulating great Australian captains, Hooper insists that he has not even considered the prospect of becoming the full-time Wallabies captain.

"No I don't look that far ahead, I don't think in the time I've been playing rugby I have. The fact is it's such a week to week game, things can change so quickly for so many reasons, that you've just got to look nice and tight, nice and close to what you can control."

"We've got five weeks until our first game against the Force here, which is a big one for us, to have a home game at the start of the season."