Veteran St Kilda leaders Nick Riewoldt, Leigh Montagna, Sean Dempster and Sam Gilbert all removed themselves from the leadership voting process, indicating that the time was right for the next wave of leaders to drive the club into the future, revealed St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson.

In an exclusive interview with saints.com.au, Richardson explained why the clubs four oldest players elected to withdraw from the voting process, before the Saints anointed Jarryn Geary as St Kilda’s 62^nd captain and included Seb Ross, Josh Bruce and Dylan Roberton in the eight-man leadership group.

“Prior to the vote, Leigh Montagna stepped up and whilst representing himself, he also spoke on behalf of Nick Riewoldt, Sean Dempster and Sam Gilbert and basically withdrew from the voting and explained that it was time for these younger guys to drive the journey of the footy club,” Richardson told saints.com.au.

“Not because it was just time for them to get out of the way, but because he felt that this next group coming through are ready to go – not that we needed them to be ready to go but they’re ready to go. So that was a real positive and incredibly selfless from those guys.”

Richardson outlined how the entire playing list was involved in the voting of the leadership group, before the eight leaders, the three departures – Riewoldt, Montagna and Dempster – Richardson and the coaches made a decision on who should captain the side in 2017.

“The guys were all asked to vote on each of the players, rank them up to ten; who you think lives our trademark, plays the game the way we want the game to be played, prepares at the standard that needs to be, so sets a great example, potentially inspires me as a teammate. The players then went away and voted and that was to form the group,” Richardson said.

“From there, with the three elders going out, Seb Ross, Josh Bruce and Dylan Roberton came into the group; the eight guys, including the three new and the three elders, they had a conversation about who they think should be the captain and I was in that conversation too, with a couple more of the coaches and Jamie Cox. We then put a recommendation to the board which was ratified.”

And now, after 11 years with Riewoldt at the helm, Geary takes control of the ship as the Saints set sail towards a return to September and a continual rise back up the ladder.