Reappointed St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt hopes this is his last AFL season in the job.
The five-time club best and fairest was yesterday confirmed as the Saints' leader for a seventh season and said he had never been more excited about the honour.
But as the head of an eight-man leadership group, under a model set up by new coach Scott Watters, Riewoldt said he wanted a successor ready to replace him in a year's time.
''Ideally in 12 months' time my name won't be at the top,'' the skipper told his teammates at the captaincy announcement. ''It will be one of those [players in the leadership group], or one of those others that were close in the voting.''
Supporting Riewoldt are Brendon Goddard, Nick Dal Santo, Sam Fisher, Leigh Montagna, Adam Schneider, James Gwilt and Ben McEvoy, with each to be handed a specific portfolio of responsibilities.
Veteran midfielder Lenny Hayes, who had been Riewoldt's vice-captain, was not among them, but was given the specially-created position of leadership mentor.
Watters said the 32-year-old had not wanted to be part of the leadership group as he focuses on his comeback from a knee reconstruction. But the club wanted to formally recognise the inspirational qualities of its ''spiritual leader''.
Riewoldt also paid tribute to Hayes. ''The past five years I know I've had the title, but we've had two captains,'' he said.
Watters said one of the reasons for not appointing a vice-captain was to get away from ''tokenism''.
But he said there would be no such issues with the leadership set-up he had implemented, as the players had spent months developing a set of agreed values, then appointing leaders who best modelled them.
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