Nick Riewoldt - a champion of the game

Just as yours

I believe St Nick has been a wonderful servant to the Saints and an a great player. I particularly dip my hate at his engine and his work ethic..... But...... I tend to agree with a few comments about really standing up. He never really took Big matches by the horns. He's let himself down at times when the Saints need him to kick an important goal or put a game out of reach...But the pressure got to him.... It's the same question mark I have against Pav.

Scandals take place at every club. It's just the media love reporting these juicy tid-bits and seem to have decided to stake out the Saints headquarters and pounce on everything. Focus on the footy Gene, I've never been a huge Riewoldt fan myself, but I have to admit he is a champion, purely based on his ability to go, again and again, even when he's run his opponent and himself into the ground, he gets up and goes again. On top of that, you never see him dispute an umpires decision, even after he's been mugged, by 2 and 3 defenders. He has sacrificed a lot and been a true example of a self-less leader. So, credit were credit is due.

Cheers Phelpsy - will certainly take on board your comments, as coming from a true champion like yourself, they obviously carry a lot of weight and are entirely relevant to the game as a whole.

He is no where in the class of g abblet past or present by the way. That's just ridiculous.

Nick was flogged by Nathan brown in the grand finals. Standing up in a 1st round match against Melbourne is one thing ... Doing it when your team needs you in big games is another... And they don't get any bigger then a grand final . Flat track bully suits him well.

The real reason why 4 points for a win etc is used, is because in the 1870/80's there were junior and senior clubs, although junior clubs were not kids but clubs deemed of way lesser ability, there was no ladder and teams did not have a normal H & A season, but played each other in a ad-hoc sort of fashion. If a senior club played a junior club, a win to the senior club may only be worth 1 point, whereras a win over a another senior club may have been worth 4, using the 4 ,3,2,1 system did away with using decimals. At the end of the season points were tallied up and the Champion team of the colony was named. Since 1887 the 4 points for a win and 2 for a draw was instigated, but maybe at the back of the minds of the rulemakers was the possibility that at some stage in the future they may revert to the old rule. THe SANFL has always been 2 and 1, but the old SANFL did not have the senior and junior club rules.

Because the game of AFL is twice as good as rugby so there's double the points on offer??

Why does afl award 4 points for a win, 2 for a draw & obviously 0 for a loss? Why not 2,1 & 0?? Or 14,7 & 0?

Some of us are straight males Pauly D and aren't into that sort of thing. :)

Can't believe we've had 13 replies and no-one has said yet that he looks good naked, standing in a Miami hotel room.

You're joking right? Nick was amongst the best in the drawn 2010 grand final and was a solid contributor in the wet 2009 grand final against the Cats. Kicked the goal to send the Saints into the 2009 grand final as well! Not everyone is a freak like Gary, just have a look at the weekends game when he led a young Saints team to victory. True champion!

What rubbish you speak! I was at those Grand Finals and the last thing you would have said of Nick Riewoldt's performance was that he let the team down. Go away!

Riewoldt will finish his career as a truly great player that never won a Premiership. There are many in this club - Buckley, Lockett, Ablett Sr, Harvey, Flower are some that come to mind. Truly great players, usually the best in their team over a long period, that never tasted the ultimate success. I think Riewoldt sits pretty comfortably with those names.

Champions stand up in games that matter ... Nick let his team down in at least two grand finals .... Not a champion in my book as not a leader when it matters

Fair comment over the entire course of a career, though there is not a lot between them. My favorite Reiwoldt memory was the mark he took in a crowded pack in the 2010 Grand Final just before Haynes wobbled through the behind to tie the scores. Just a few minutes earlier Maxwell took a screamer for Collingwood that helped lead to Cloke's goal.

If you are looking at Pav v Riewoldt in 2014 then Riewoldt is having a tougher time of it and has less support, so yes maybe he is producing more (from the one game so far), but I think the article is looking at entire careers. The Saints had a long period of finals footy with some great players - Hayes, Dal Santo, Harvey. You also forget the Saints had Gehrig and Kosi for 7 years making Nicks life easier. Not sure who Pavs extra forward was at Freo during these years? Longmuir? As good as Reiwoldt is he's only headed the Saints goal kicking award twice, thanks to Gehrig and Milne. Pav has done it 8 times at Freo, which shows the lack of support he's had down front over his career. Pav - AA full back, CHF / FF, as well playing as an on-baller when needed. I agree with the writer in putting Pav ahead of Riewoldt simply due to his versatility over his entire career.

He stood by the team and played great football..what did you do?..what have you done?..go back to the gutter or the bitter little club you support....and was you club clean and what did you Captain do?..anyway not even the topic...get a life...

McNamara out Nick in........He and Plugger the best I have seen in my 50 years as a Saints supporter...

Gerard Whateley on 360 made a lovely comment last year, when Nick Riewoldt was tearing it up in the first few rounds - he said something along the lines of how noble he looked, giving his all in the fight against inevitability - which was of course that the Saints premiership window had slammed shut, and he wasn't going to get another chance at a flag in his career. But still he kept going, trying to will it not to be so.