St Kilda stalwart defender Sean Dempster produced another season of stellar service in 2016, playing out of his weight division throughout the year and excelling on the opposition’s best tall forward.

Rarely beaten across 19 games this year, the 32-year-old continued to set the example for professionalism at Linen House Centre, with his elite level of preparation raising the bar once again.

Dempster played his 150^th game in the famous red, white and black against Port Adelaide in Round 1, sharing the occasion with another veteran in Leigh Montagna, who reached the 250-game mark at Adelaide Oval.

The All-Australian defender got off to a strong start to the season, polling in seven of the first eight games in the Trevor Barker Award, including a near best on ground effort against North Melbourne in Round 7 where he held Jarrad Waite – who was the in-form key forward in the game at the time – to a single goal and only two marks.

A knee injury in the disappointing trip to Adelaide in Round 11 sidelined Dempster for three weeks before the former Swan returned for the final eight games of the season to bolster a defence that suddenly lost Sam Fisher, Hugh Goddard and himself in the space of a week.

In an impressive fortnight, Dempster held Melbourne star forward to one goal and then kept Western Bulldogs sharp shooter Tory Dickson goalless, before adding Richmond spearhead Jack Riewoldt to his list of scalps in the penultimate round of the season.

Alan Richardson’s Views:

“It was another really impressive year by Sean. He sets a great example for his teammates on the track; he’s the ultimate professional when it comes to preparing your body for battle. He is a leader by example; he’s been a really strong member of our leadership team for some time now; his younger teammates and the older teammates for that matter look up to him. Culturally he’s done a fair bit for our footy club in terms of raising the bar and raising standards, he continues to do that and we expect ‘Shinner’ for us next year.

“About halfway through the year when we had a few injuries to our key backs and had to bring ‘Gilbo’ back and ‘Robbo’ really stepped up, ‘Shinner’ was the one who would generally get the opposition's best forward and more often than not it was often the opposition's best big forward, but we know that he’s capable of playing on all sizes and shapes because of his athletic ability and his incredible discipline and concentration, means he can get the job done on many different players.

“We hope that’s not going to have to be the case going forward, with Jake Carlisle coming in, a few others leaving recently with hopefully an active trade period, but I’m tipping Sean will still play on the opposition’s best players more often than not. We know that when we need him to play on the monsters he is more than capable of performing strongly and getting the job done for us.”

The Numbers:

19 games
10^th in the Trevor Barker Award
13.5 disposals
83.7 per cent efficiency
5.7 marks
2.5 rebound 50s