Nick Riewoldt says the lure of playing finals is motivating him down final stretch

ST KILDA star Nick Riewoldt last played finals in 2011 and he’s doing everything in his power to experience it again with the Saints this season.

Nick Riewoldt celebrates a goal for St Kilda.

NICK Riewoldt concedes his body needs until about Thursday to recover after a match, but the prospect of his first finals series since 2011 is putting the pain in context.

With just a six-day break between Sunday’s brilliant win over Fremantle in Perth and Saturday night’s clash with Richmond, Riewoldt’s trusted regimen to aid his troublesome knees will be crucial this week.

“It’s been the same routine really for the last five years — I look terrible from pretty much the weekend through until about Thursday and then I get myself up and I play,” Riewoldt said.

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“You can always do what you need to do for two hours on game day, provided that you’re professional and diligent during the week.

“I think any footballer you speak to by Round 15, 16 of the season, the attrition starts to build up a little bit but there’s some light at (the end of) the tunnel as well and the light I speak of is finals footy.

“We haven’t played since 2011 so that’s a pretty big motivator.”

Nick Riewoldt and Tim Membrey celebrate a goal against Fremantle.

Riewoldt, who said last month he’d be keen to play on next season, was reluctant to speak about his future insisting his focus was on playing good football “to make sure we play finals again”.

But he conceded the decision probably wouldn’t be his.

“It’s just an open dialogue really ... but playing good footy and the team playing well is the most important thing at this stage,” Riewoldt said.

“ ... I’m not sure it’ll be entirely my decision, that’ll play out.”

Nick and cousin, Jack Riewoldt helped launch The Art of Football, an exhibition where 11 players have collaborated with 11 artists to create a design on a football.

The pieces will be auctioned for Maddie Riewoldt’s Vision, which supports research into bone marrow failure syndromes and was created after the death of Riewoldt’s sister, Maddie.

“There’s a lot at stake off the field with respect to Maddie’s Vision and the cause, but on the field there’s a lot at stake as well which I guess just adds a whole different layer to this version of Maddie’s Match,” Riewoldt said.

“The competition’s a better competition when Richmond are up toward the top of the ladder and we’ve got a spot in the eight at the moment that we’re pretty keen to hang on to.”

(From left) Luke Hodge, Nick Riewoldt, Darcy Vescio, Jack Riewoldt and Moana Hope at the 'Art of Football' exhibition.

Meanwhile, Riewoldt reckons he’s been duped plenty of times the way he conned Freo’s Griffin Logue on Sunday.

The Saints veteran could only smile when that fact he was Griffin’s favourite player was brought up.

But Riewoldt said he thought by this stage of the week people would have stopped talking about the incident.

“That sort of stuff happens every week, it’s just that players generally don’t fall for it,” Riewoldt said.

“I’ve been duped occasionally by the senior players throughout my career. It’s Wednesday, I’m just looking forward to this week now.”