In its first year of operation under the watchful eye of Darren Harris, the Blues' development academy has the obvious goal of honing on-field skills, but also has a strong focus on leadership.
Gibbs, along with Shaun Grigg, Matthew Kreuzer, Michael Jamison and Marc Murphy, have each been put in charge of one of the five sub-groups that make up the academy which he believes has already paid handsome dividends.
"The development program has been fantastic for us younger guys. We meet once a week, go through a few things and learn about the opposition and about the game plan," Gibbs says.
"We just make sure everybody's getting involved and make sure that the young guys feel comfortable voicing their opinions. Some of the younger blokes might be a bit scared to go up to Juddy and tell him about how he feels about an issue or ask why we do something in the game plan. So we're someone they can come and talk to and then we can bring that to the leadership group.
"We've been able to take some real leadership qualities away from that and we've had fun doing it as well. That's preparing us for the next couple of years to step up into the real leadership group."
There's a better than even chance that the club's next skipper will come from that select group of young guns, but Gibbs is guarded when asked if he can see himself in the top job one day.
"You never know. There's a group of us coming through and I think any of the guys would play a good role in the leadership group," he says.
"If the young guys and the older guys see me as the leader of the club then I might be able to take that opportunity if it comes up in the future."
There's a touch of irony in Gibbs' development as a leader when you consider that, as an untried recruit, he was actually in the leadership group in his first year at the club.
"It was a bit of a funny situation in that first year," he admits.
"The first thing I wanted to do coming to the club was earn the respect of the players. I went into the leadership group and I hadn't even played a game yet, so obviously I couldn't have earned that respect.
"They asked me if I wanted to be in it and I ummed and ahhed, and had a chat with my family and a few other people, but in the end we just thought 'why not? Just go for it'.
"I don't know how long my career will last so I just went for it and said I'd do it, but I didn't really think of myself as a leader – I was just there to soak it all up and take as much away from it as possible.
"I looked at it more as a big learning experience. I didn't get around the club thinking I was a leader or anything or telling blokes what to do. I just sort of sat back in the meetings and didn't say much and took it all in."
Gibbs, a noted student of the game and information sponge, cops some good-natured ribbing from his teammates over his studious tendencies, but he feels he owes it to himself to go as hard as he can while he's got the chance.
"Footy is only going to last 10 or 12 years if you're really lucky," he says.
"Not many people last 10 years these days, but if I can leave no stone unturned and have a real crack at it, if I can look back at the end of my career and say 'I did everything right' then I'll be satisfied.
"There's no point wondering 'what if?' later on. Just take it all in and learn as much as you can while you can."
