St Kilda have created a unique mentoring role for veteran midfielder Lenny Hayes, rather than include him in their eight-man leadership group for the coming AFL season.

The Saints confirmed on Wednesday that Nick Riewoldt will captain the club for a seventh season.

But, unlike recent years, when Hayes has been vice-captain, there will be no official second-in-command.

Supporting Riewoldt are Brendon Goddard, Nick Dal Santo, Sam Fisher, Leigh Montagna, Adam Schneider, James Gwilt and Ben McEvoy, with each to be handed a specific portfolio of responsibilities.

Hayes, on the comeback from a knee reconstruction, was given the official title of leadership mentor.

New coach Scott Watters said the 32-year-old had not wanted to be part of the leadership group as he focuses on his playing return, but the club had wanted to formally recognise the inspirational qualities of their “spiritual leader”.

The coach said one of the reasons for not having a vice-captain was that traditionally such titles were often “tokenism”.

But he said there would be no such issues with the leadership set-up he had implemented, as the players had spent months developing a set of agreed values, then appointing leaders who best modelled them.

“This is not just leadership by title,” Watters said, although he refused to specify what the values were,

“It’s not a massive secret, but it’s something we hold dear to us.”

Riewoldt said he had never been so excited to captain the club, partly because of the process he had gone through to regain the job.

He said the Saints were in a state of transition.

But despite coming off seventh place last year – after making grand finals in the previous two seasons – then the shock departure of now-Fremantle coach Ross Lyon, the skipper believed St Kilda remained well-placed for another premiership tilt.

“The club played finals last year for the fourth consecutive year,” Riewoldt said.

“We’re not coming off the bottom of the ladder.

“We’re coming from a position of strength and now it’s about building on that.”

McEvoy, who at 22 is comfortably the youngest member of the leadership group, said being dropped for the 2010 grand final had proved a turning point for him.

“That’s no doubt the most significant moment in my career,” he said.

“Those sorts of things really fast-track your career, I think, both in a football sense and also your character.

“I’ve come a long way in the past 12 months.”