St Kilda may have lost a wealth of leadership experience in the past 12 months, but a handful of emerging leaders are stepping up to fill the void, says skipper Jarryn Geary.

Club greats Nick Riewoldt and Leigh Montagna retired at the end of the 2017 season, while stalwart defender Sean Dempster was forced to hang up his boots at the start of this year.

As the winds of change have swept through Linen House Centre, budding stars Seb Ross and Dylan Roberton, who finished first and second in this year’s Trevor Barker Award and were both named in the All-Australian squad, are two players who have risen to the next level.

Geary is confident others will follow the path taken by Ross and Roberton and help steer the Saints in 2018 and beyond.

“To be honest, towards the end of last year there was a number of guys in the leadership group that took the next step, not only in their leadership but in their footy too,” Geary told reporters at a press conference.

“Dylan Roberton and Seb Ross, who were additions to the leadership group, became All-Australian contenders.

“To go from not being in the leadership group, to being in the leadership group and then taking their leadership to the next level was impressive.

“I’ve had some help from guys last year and I’m sure they’ll take their leadership to another level and there will be other guys who step up and carry a bit of the load as well.

“I’m really confident that we’ve got some strong leaders in the club still, even though Nick, Joey and Sean Dempster have left.”

Geary said the club will go through a process in January to confirm the leadership group for next year, but the ultra-consistent small defender wants the honour of leading the Saints again in 2018.

“I’m sure there will be some kind of process that we’ll go through in the new year,” he said.

“I’m pretty keen to do it again if I get endorsed by the players again. I wouldn’t do it unless they did, so we’ll wait to see what happens in January."