THE TOUGH CALL FOR SAINT NICK
Club is greater than the individual, even for champions like Riewoldt
THE hardest thing for some players is to look in the mirror and know when their time is done.
For some it’s easy, but for many others it’s not.
The self-confidence and the inner competitiveness that have made these players so good for so long can also be their greatest weakness, because champion players so often believe they still have more to give.
Nick Riewoldt has to ask himself if it is worth playing on next year.
Personally, I don’t subscribe to the theory that you should retire a year too early rather than a year too late.
If you play that extra year and it fails, and you don’t play much, or you’re stuck in the VFL, I don’t see that as being a horrible thing, a blot on your legacy or an asterisk on your career.
But that’s one small part of the puzzle, the decision is much bigger than that.
For players such as Riewoldt, the question has to be: what is in St Kilda’s best interests?
The Saints, in particular their forward line, live in the very big shadow of Nick Riewoldt.
This is a team we expect big things of next year and, regardless of whether they make finals this year, they will be expected to not only make the eight next year but maybe even the top-four for the first time under Alan Richardson.
But would Riewoldt playing on for one more year be at the detriment of the development of the emerging forward line that will serve the Saints’ next premiership push?
Can Tim Membrey, Josh Bruce and Paddy McCartin stand up and actually make the forward line theirs with Riewoldt still there?
What I see too much now, even with Riewoldt playing up the ground, is that when St Kilda is struggling to score, they turn to him to get them out of a pickle. Or, Riewoldt himself, through his sheer determination and will to win, is the man who gets into prime position and commands the ball.
My fear is they can’t keep relying on him, so this is the longer view I’m sure the Saints are having at the moment.
Other factors in the equation are salary cap — how much damage could St Kilda do with a few extra dollars in the salary cap if Riewoldt goes this year — and also the need to keep players such as McCartin, confident opportunities would come.
You’d hate for someone like McCartin, still only 21, to consider leaving just because he feels there are too many players standing in his way in the short-term.
To be honest, St Kilda would probably have a pretty fair idea about where Riewoldt sits in the plans for next year, so from here it is about how well the situation is handled.
These discussions are never easy and we’ve seen recent examples at Geelong about how the separation between club and champion left a bitter taste.
That’s because these players feel they have more to give.
James Kelly is a great example of life after the Cats. He was pushed out the door and answered an SOS from Essen- don. Two years later the Essendon supporters are seeing what Geelong supporters had seen for a long period of time. And his form is good enough to go on next year if that’s what everyone agrees is the best path for the Bombers.
Riewoldt has been a champion for such a long time at St Kilda and he deserves a flag. He keeps fronting up brilliantly well, but I think there are some recent examples where his body is just saying “enough is enough”.
At the end of the year big decisions have to be made at St Kilda.
Will it be a nice ending or an uneasy one?