Nick Riewoldt says he is at peace with the absence of a premiership medal from his glittering career, accepting that he couldn't have done any more to deliver St Kilda the club's second flag.
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Nick Riewoldt announces retirement
St Kilda veteran Nick Riewoldt has announced the 2017 AFL season will be his last. AAP
In a room packed with teammates, coaches, staff and Riewoldt's family members at the Saints' Seaford base on Monday afternoon, the club's longest-serving captain, and one of its greatest ever players, confirmed that the 2017 season would be his last.
With his 35th birthday coming in October, Riewoldt, five-times an All-Australian and six-times St Kilda's best and fairest, said he had come to the gradual realisation this year that the time was right for his career to draw to a close.
Despite injury and occasional rests, Riewoldt has played 14 games this season, remaining a highly influential player when on song. But with a new contract not forthcoming from the Saints, it had dawned on the champion forward, taken at pick No.1Â in the 2000 draft, that he should defy the naysayers no longer.
"At times I've been really, I guess, defiant in my desire to continue to play," he said.
"I was just fighting myself, saying, 'don't be weak, don't be weak, you've got yourself out of that many situations and adversity before, that this is no different.'
"But the longer it went, the more I really internalised the conversation, obviously with a big decision you speak to those around you that you trust, and the more I did that, the more the decision crystalised in my mind that it is the right time."
![Nick Riewoldt at the announcement of his retirement, with his wife Catherine and his sons Will and James.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170803032333im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/m/c/0/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxmewe.png/1501496346586.jpg)
He added that he was glad to be finishing up "with a litre or two of petrol left in the tank rather than being run out on the side of the road with the hood up begging for help".
Saints coach Alan Richardson said he had noted a change in Riewoldt's mindset during recent discussions. "The reality is that probably the last couple of conversations, I could just sense that he was really just thinking about his future, and fundamentally if you're thinking about [whether] you're done, you're done," Richardson said.
Riewoldt said the prospect he could be keeping out young Saints, such as forward Paddy McCartin, was not a major consideration in his decision.
Having made his debut in 2001, Riewoldt took the AFL by storm as a defender early in 2002. It was as a supremely fit centre-half forward that Riewoldt played most of his football however, before being shifted to a wing late in his career.
As captain he led the Saints first in 2005 as part of then-coach Grant Thomas' rotation policy, before sharing the leadership with Luke Ball and Lenny Hayes in 2007, again assuming the position by himself in 2008, holding it until the end of last season. Riewoldt conceded that his fierce competitive streak had led his emotions to boilover counterproductively as an inexperienced captain.
It was as skipper under coach Ross Lyon that Riewoldt came closest to an elusive flag, with a narrow grand final defeat to Geelong in 2009 and the draw against Collingwood in 2010 remaining haunting memories for legions of Saints fans. Riewoldt himself though has come to terms with the near misses. "That's an aspect of my career that I beat myself up over, at various stages," he said.
"The reason I'm content is because going through those experiences, what more could we have done? Personally, could I have trained any harder, could I have pushed any more, could I have prepared any better? The answer is no, within those.
"I took the emotional risk to be great, and wins, and losses and mistakes, they're all part of a career, and I can cop that, that we gave it everything we could."
In 11th spot on the ladder, a game and nine per cent adrift of eigth-placed West Coast, the Saints remain an outside chance to make the finals, with Richardson urging his players to "play in a spirit that [Riewoldt] would respect" in the last four rounds of the season, starting with Sunday's game against the Eagles at Etihad, a match in which Riewoldt will return after being rested from Saturday's loss to Port Adelaide.
While not delving into great detail about his post-football plans, Riewoldt said he didn't fear retirement. He also refused to speculate on whether fellow veteran Leigh Montagna would also retired at season's end. Montagna last week conceded he may have played his last game following a hamstring injury the previous weekend against Sydney.
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