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Nick Riewoldt deserves a fairytale ending

St Kilda's lack of success will forever be a part of Nick Riewoldt's legacy. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Roar Guru
1st August, 2017
14

I was in Year 6 when Nick Riewoldt debuted. I’m now almost 28. Naturally then his retirement has had a large effect on me.

But strangely, the announcement has come as some sort of relief. For the past five years at least, every contest that Riewoldt contested, felt like it could be his last – his body seemed that close to the edge.

But now he will depart on his own terms, either in four games’ time or, for the romantics and dreamers like me, in eight games – with a medal around his neck and a cup in his hands.

In Round 1 this year, Riewoldt landed awkwardly and injured his knee. From that point on, the intensity of the crowd seemed to drop – the loss to Melbourne seemed of less importance than the possibility that Nick had played his last game. But two weeks later he was back, showing the extraordinary willpower he has always had to get up again and again.

It’s this willpower which has seen him play on busted knees for the majority of the back half of his career. And play well too. His career has been one of the best ever seen at St Kilda, not only for the skills and endurance that he brought every week he played, but also for the leadership he gave through the scandals that plagued the club over the past few years.

His accolades speak for themselves and do not need to be mentioned again here. What does need to be said (and this is the greatest compliment that you can give a footballer) is that like Robert Harvey and Lenny Hayes before him, he left nothing on the field and gave everything he had to the game and the club.

When Harvey retired in 2008, there was no fairytale – although it was close. A loss in a preliminary final is about as close as you can get. Hayes never had a chance for a fairytale ending, St Kilda being at its lowest ebb at the time. But in my mind, Riewoldt still does have his chance for a fairytale.

The majority of the comments since the announcement have stated that he only has four games left and will retire without a premiership. But it is still (to use a dreaded term) ‘mathematically possible’ for the Saints to make finals.

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In fact, it is still highly possible if they can win the next four games – all of which are winnable if the team gives everything they have . And then, after that, who knows. The Bulldogs last year proved that you can now win the premiership from anywhere in the top 8. While there is life, the dream – for me at least – remains alive.

Even if the fairytale remains just a dream, Riewoldt will retire as one of the greatest St Kilda players ever and certainly its greatest captain.

He will also retire as one of the greatest players in the modern era of the AFL. But if the football gods have a sense of romance there is still one final, glorious chapter left in the Riewoldt story.

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