PADDY McCartin knows he could not find a better role model than Nick Riewoldt.
St Kilda snared McCartin with pick No.1 in last year's NAB AFL Draft, ultimately preferring the Geelong Falcons key forward to Eastern Ranges midfield bull Christian Petracca.
The Saints' decision was influenced, in part, by the need to groom a forward-line successor to Riewoldt.
Riewoldt, 32, has been one of his generation's best key forwards and, despite battle-scared knees and the Saints' poor 2014 season, was named All Australian last year for the fifth time.
No tall forward has ever worked harder than the Saints skipper, whose trademark up-and-back leads have run opponents into the ground for more than a decade.
As a No.1 draft pick himself, in 2000, Riewoldt also knows the pressures that McCartin will have to contend with as his draft class' most-prized player.
McCartin knows what an invaluable mentor Riewoldt could be for him and has already been picking his skipper's football brain.
"He's fantastic, he's been awesome," McCartin told AFL.com.au at the AFL Players' Association induction camp for first-year players on Monday.
"He's been fantastic to try to emulate and if I can be half the player he is I'll be happy.
"At the moment, he's sort of in and out (of the club) a bit because he's still doing a bit of stuff inside because of his knees, and he's just had a young fella (one-month-old son James) as well who he's been pretty busy with.
"But I've had a few chats with Nick and I'll probably sit down with him a bit closer to the season once he gets out on the track a bit more because we'll probably be doing a pretty similar program.
"Hopefully as the season gets closer we can start sitting down and having a few chats about what's to come this year."
McCartin has yet to set any specific goals for the 2015 season, preferring to focus on throwing himself into his first pre-season.
"I've been injury-free so far and have been able to have a pretty good run at it, so I'll just keep doing what I need to do and learn as much as I can and see where that takes me," he says.
"I'm not setting any goals for round one or whatever. I'll just keep training, have a crack and see how I'll go."
McCartin says he and his fellow first-year Saints are completing about 80 per cent of the club's pre-season program, something he has found is common at other clubs.
"I think everyone I've spoken to here (at the induction camp) is doing the same thing," he says.
"To go from under-18 footy into an AFL environment and do everything would be a bit full on, so they're sort of just easing us into it.
"But in saying that it's still been pretty solid."
McCartin has found the mental demands of an AFL pre-season to be just as taxing as the physical ones.
"You've got to be switched on all day making sure you're on top of everything," he says.
"To go from training six hours a week (as a junior) to six hours a day, five or six days a week, is a pretty full-on adjustment.
"But it's awesome, a footy club is a great environment and I'm very lucky."
