NICK Riewoldt has further enhanced his reputation as one of the game's greats by claiming his sixth St Kilda best and fairest award.

 

Riewoldt polled 137 votes to win the Trevor Barker Award ahead of retiring midfielder Lenny Hayes, who came in second with 126.

 

Defender Sean Dempster placed third with 101.

 

Riewoldt's win was celebrated at Crown Palladium in Melbourne on Friday night.

 

Having also been named best and fairest in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2009, the 31-year-old has now won the award two more times than any other Saint in history (Bill Cubbins and Robert Harvey both won four).

 

Only seven players in the history of the game have won more club titles.

"It's a huge honour," Riewoldt told AFL.com.au. 

"I feel a little guilty spoiling the party with Lenny tonight but it's a huge honour and it's a highly respected award named after a highly respected person in the club's history.

"It's a privilege to be able to win that award."

 

This year, the captain easily led the Saints for goalkicking with 49 – the next best was Rhys Stanley with 18 – as well as marks and contested marks, plus he racked up the most time on the ground across his 22 games. 

 

The Saints' longest-serving skipper took the most marks in the competition with 191, in what was the first season since 2006 where he managed to play every game.

 

Only four Saints achieved that, with fellow top-10 finishers Jack Newnes, Luke Delaney and Dempster the others.

 

For Hayes, it was a season that started strongly to the point where there was speculation he would consider playing on for another year.

 

But the 34-year-old was troubled by groin soreness as the season wore on and his form wasn't as strong towards the end of the year.

 

He was farewelled last Sunday after the Saints' loss to Adelaide and made an emotional presentation to youngster Luke Dunstan, who will wear his No.7 guernsey next season.

 

Dunstan won the Saints' most promising player award after a strong debut year that resulted in 16 games before shoulder surgery cut his season short after round 19.

Hayes was celebrated again at the best and fairest with a video featuring tributes from former and current teammates, opponents and coaches throughout the League. 

 

St Kilda coach Alan Richardson said Riewoldt's win was a tribute to the incredible season he had despite the Saints managing just four wins.

 

"He's obviously been really impressive in terms of the way that he's played and the impact he's had," Richardson said.

 

"He had a significant influence on our positive results this year.

 

"What's been more impressive has been his leadership. It's one thing for him to perform well, but it's the performance and the uplift of others that will get us heading in the right direction.

 

"He's been a real driver in that space."

 

Riewoldt is contracted until the end of next year but has indicated he would like to play on beyond that. 

He is yet to make a call on whether he will captain the side again next season and maintains he will fulfill the role as long as the club wants him to. 

Richardson said the introduction of Leading Teams this season had allowed for honest discussions that set the scene for the progression of the team. 

"We really needed to make sure we established what it meant to be a Saints player," he said.

"What [Leading Teams] has done for us has underpinned a lot of decisions we make going forward.

"There's no doubt the way we were able to have strong and robust discussions – and it's clear that not everything went the way we would have liked it to go – but we had a real framework within that trademark to make sure we made strong and robust decisions.

"We also made sure that – and focused strongly on – we wanted to do what was right.

"There's been some noise about our footy club and some attention on our footy club that we don't want, that we think is not befitting of who we are as a club and people.

"We wanted to make sure we did everything we could to remedy that, on and off the field – and our leaders were outstanding in that space."