LEIGH Montagna would seriously considercaptaining St Kilda if Nick Riewoldt chose not to lead the side for a ninthseason.
Riewoldt has always said he will captainthe team as long as the club wants him to.
With Leading Teams working with theSaints this year, the team's leadership structure will change, but Montagnaexpects Riewoldt to remain as skipper nevertheless.
"We'll do the Leading Teams modelwhere we'll go through the proper process, but I would think clearly Nick wouldstill be the man for the job," Montagna said on Monday.
"I can't see why that would change.
"With the Leading Teams model,we'll do it through the formal procedures and pick a leaderships group and fromthere, pick a captain."
Montagna, who signed a two-year contractextension late last year, said he would love to tackle the role if Riewoldtdidn't want to stay as captain.
"It would be something I'dseriously consider," he said.
"We'll get to that when we do butlook, Nick has been a tremendous captain and I'd continue to love playing underNick."
Riewoldt is contracted until the end of2015 while Montagna is signed for another season beyond that.
The captain, who stayed in the US after the Saints' Coloradotraining camp in December, looked a picture of fitness as he ran laps onMonday.
Rhys Stanley (hip/shoulder), Arryn Siposs (shoulder), SamFisher (toe), Tom Lee (shoulder), Jack Billings (quad), Lewis Pierce (back) andMaverick Weller also ran laps.
Daniel Markworth, who needed an arthroscope on hisreconstructed knee following a slight setback in Colorado, trained with themain group for most of the session.
With the departure of Ben McEvoy, there have been questionsraised over who is the natural successor to Riewoldt when he hands over thetitle.
Montagna said there were potential candidates there - theyjust had to draw out the leadership in them.
"There are certainly guys in our group who haveleadership potential but giving them the environment where they can show thatand bring it out is something that we'll work on," he said.
"We really need some guys to step up and that's goingto be the plan.
"Nick and Lenny [Hayes] aren't going to go aroundforever so we certainly need to fast track some development from otherguys."
Montagna said the Saints had a solid week of trainingthrough Melbourne's recent heatwave, living new coach Alan Richardson's mantra ofnot taking any shortcuts.
The Saints faced their heaviest load for the pre-season lastweek when the temperature hit 40-plus degrees four days in a row.
While Monday's lengthy session was held in much less taxingcircumstances, Montagna is still set for a trying fortnight.
He will marry fiancé Erinn Byrne on Saturday week, with thecouple booked to wed at St Kilda's Stokehouse, which burnt down on Fridaynight.
The midfielder said Erinn was being "a good sport"about the situation but admitted it was going to be a challenge organising awedding in two weeks.
"It's thrown a spanner in the works. We haven't got avenue as yet," he said.
"We spent the weekend brainstorming and my fiancé hastaken a couple of days off work so she'll get onto it today.
