St Kilda must confront question of Nick Riewoldt’s future after win against North Melbourne
LET’S talk about the elephant in the room. Forget St Kilda’s yawn-inducing win against North Melbourne. Let’s talk about Nick Riewoldt.
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LET’S talk about the elephant in the room.
Forget St Kilda beating North Melbourne in a yawn-inducing, no-atmosphere game decided by who stuffed up less.
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Forget how shockingly bad the Kangaroos were and that they gave up pick 15 as part of a 2015 deal for Jed Anderson, who went the entire first half without a touch.
No, let’s talk Nick Riewoldt.
At 34 — 35 in October — does Riewoldt embark on an 18th season in 2018?
Make no mistake, this is THE decision to be made at Seaford this season and there’s another 10 weeks to make it.
Premiership coach Mick Malthouse last month labelled talk of extending Riewoldt’s contract as “premature”.
Former St Kilda coach and friend Grant Thomas followed up last week by telling the Herald Sun Riewoldt should either be forced to retire or get to centre half-back because he is stifling development.
On Friday night we got a bit of everything. In the first half there was frustration, mistakes and a potential suspension for striking. In the second half we got strong contested marking, a commanding presence and an influential leader.
“Rooey”, of course, doesn’t need to prove anything. Six best-and-fairests and five All-Australians is proof of that. But this isn’t about his trophy cabinet.
It’s about where he fits in a team trying to find itself. Does he fit in a team with a young forward line that has stagnated this season? He and Josh Bruce have struggled to find a working chemistry in the attacking arc and often find themselves in the same spots.
Perhaps most importantly, will Nick’s body allow him to fit? He grabbed his knee after kicking for goal while warming up for the Round 9 game against Sydney and needed three weeks to overcome the soreness. He dodged an ACL bullet when he hyper-extended his other knee in Round 1.
Talk to orthopedic surgeon’s about the state of Riewoldt’s knees and the general reply is, “Don’t try this at home”. Has the wick burnt too close to the dynamite?
Playing him with regular rests looks good on paper, but what happens when younger teammates are being yanked in and out of the side to make it happen?
And for all that, Robbie Tarrant was struggling to go with him and sucking in the big ones when the ball left their area.
Riewoldt has eked every last drop out of himself — and continues to do so in a career admired for its courage and tenacity as much as its skill.
Friday night’s worrying start ended with the sort of numbers Riewoldt has made his name with — 21 disposals, 11 marks — three contested — and a game-high 12 score involvements.
The range in his kicking wasn’t there, finishing with 0.3, but he was excellent.
He will, however, come under the eye of the match review panel for responding to Scott Thompson’s cheap shot elbow to his guts with a swinging punch to the Roos defender’s back.
Of Riewoldt’s nine games this year, some have been belters and some have been poor, but
Thomas maintained the decorated veteran was hurting the development of the club’s next premiership forward line.
“I don’t have any doubt Nick could eke out another year comfortably, but what is the point?’’ Thomas said.
“It might be good for him to get another year, but in the cool hard light of day the AFL is a premiership-winning business.
Riewoldt isn’t the retiring type, though. It doesn’t take much imagination to see him being dragged kicking and screaming out of the club if and when it pulls the pin.
But when one of your finest qualities is your fighting spirit, maybe that’s fair enough.
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