Newly-appointed St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt believes he's much better prepared for the job now than when he first held down the role as a 22-year-old in 2005.
Riewoldt was formally announced as the Saints' new skipper at a media conference at Moorabbin on Wednesday, with Lenny Hayes to be the club's new vice-captain.
The pair were joint captains last year along with Luke Ball who has since stood down to concentrate on his form and fitness.
Riewoldt held the captaincy in his own right for one season, 2005, under former coach Grant Thomas' rotation policy and endured a fiery baptism.
He was sidelined for six weeks after his first game when he suffered a broken collarbone against the Brisbane Lions only to be controversially targeted for attention by Mal Michael and Brad Scott.
"In football terms, I was still growing and inexperienced," Riewoldt said on Wednesday.
"That year, with a combination of factors, being injured threw a spanner in the works."
"Having my identity taken away as a footballer forced me to go away and throw all my energy behind the team and I think that was a really groundbreaking year for me personally with my development as a leader around the club."
"I really grew a lot as a leader in that year … (but) I'm far better equipped now to handle the role."
Senior coach Ross Lyon said Riewoldt was a natural for the job and possesses all the qualities one would look for in a captain.
"Nick chooses to train hard and contest every session," Lyon said.
"Nick chooses to compete hard every minute of the game, chooses to be courageous and chooses to stand up under pressure."
"The behaviours that we value around here he models very well, and if players tend to stray he is very good at pointing out that we need to do things a little bit better than that."
"They're the fundamental reasons."
Quizzed about the prospect of team success under his leadership, Riewoldt said he doesn’t ever want to be in Robert Harvey's position of 'trying to hang on for that last one'.
"We'd all love to give 'Harvs' the send-off that he deserves, but I'd like to share it (a premiership) in the next couple of years," he said.