On the back of Nick Riewoldt’s stunning return on Sunday, St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson praised the champion forwards determination to get his body right after he injured his knee in the dying minutes of Round 1.

The six-time Trevor Barker Award winner returned 15 days after hyperextending his knee against Melbourne and produced a brilliant performance to help lead St Kilda to their first win of 2017.

Riewoldt, 34, collected 28 disposals, 12 marks, 11 score involvements, five inside 50s and booted three goals in the Saints 31-point win over Brisbane at Etihad Stadium.

“I think it’s worth mentioning what ‘Rooey’ did in terms of getting himself right. He is amazing in that space,” Richardson said in his post-match press conference on Sunday night.

“We have all admired for a long time what a strong performer he is but it’s incredible the work he does.

“(He sets) such a great example to a lot of young players that work around him about the work you have to do be at your best on game day, whether you’ve got a really significant injury or a reasonable injury.

“For him to get up after one week was incredibly impressive.”

When asked about Leigh Montagna’s decision to wait for the opposition to approach him while he was clear in front of goal, Richardson said he didn’t like the look of the act but understood the veteran's intentions late in the game.

“Joey showed a lot of composure late and I do need to explain the time that he hung on to the footy because we don’t like that as a footy club, we spoke about it as a footy club,” he said.

“But that’s just how smart he is; he was trying to take up time given that no one was closing from Brisbane and whilst we had started to regain some ascendancy and momentum. It didn’t look good and it’s not what we want to do.”

Richardson said star midfielders Jack Steven and David Armitage are both a chance to return against Collingwood on Easter Sunday after missing Sunday’s game due to a punctured lung and groin issue respectively.

“He’s [Steven] a chance. He’s already done a bit of training; he did a seven and a half kilometre session on Friday. He’s driving the doctors made,” he said.

“Dave’s the same. He was pretty close this week and so both those boys will be given every opportunity to be right.

“The doctors are going to have to be really comfortable that they are right to go, we certainly wouldn’t take a risk particularly with Jack given the injury.

“Dave’s a little bit different, but if he’s right then we think they make us a better team. So we hope that they get up.”