St Kilda is getting closer to making its first captaincy change since the beginning of 2008, with veteran star Leigh Montagna revealing that the Saints will vote in their leadership in the coming weeks before naming Nick Riewoldt’s replacement.

After 11 seasons in the role, Riewoldt elected to step down from the coveted position at the conclusion of last season, finishing as the longest serving skipper in St Kilda’s history and the third longest in the game’s history.

Montagna, 33, nominated ultra-reliable defender, Jarryn Geary, as the front-runner to take over the leadership reins, as well as naming three-time Trevor Barker Award winner, Jack Steven, David Armitage and Mav Weller as other potential candidates.

“That will all happen I think in the next week or two. We’re voting for the leadership group next week and once that’s established we’ll then appoint a captain,” Montagna told Melbourne radio station SEN on Thursday.

“We’ve got a lot of these younger guys that are ready to take the step, but ‘Gears’ is probably the front runner there.

“Jack Steven has come along in leaps and bounds and Mav Weller is a terrific leader and Dave Armitage – we have a few options.

“I think ‘Gears’ is terrific, he’s really highly rated within the football club, not probably as well known outside the football club, but certainly internally we rate him really highly.”

Halfway through his 16^th pre-season at the Saints, Montagna explained how the players vote in the leadership group, before that selected group make a decision on the captain in conjunction with the coaching staff and other key figures at the club.

“The coaches certainly get involved with the captaincy, the leadership group will be voted by the players, that’s always the same case; we have some criteria to vote for who we want to be the leaders,” Montagna said.

But then once the leadership group is established the captain generally gets chosen in discussion with the leadership group and the coaches and a bit higher than the players – that will probably how it unfolds again.

“It’s been a pretty straightforward process for the last ten years, it will be a little bit different this time around, it will be certainly done with a lot of peoples input.”