A HEART-TO-HEART late last week between St Kilda's players and coaches before their last official commitment for the 2007 season produced a blueprint for ultimate success in 2008 and beyond.

Among players who were so close it had worked against them at times, brutal honesty would be an essential ingredient for success.

"What we did today is we recommitted to that aim of being a great team," coach Ross Lyon said at the Saints' best-and-fairest award dinner on Friday night, explaining that the side had a season-changing meeting before Robert Harvey's 350th game in round 12 when it re-stated its goals.

"We look forward to '08, and if every player buys in on those aims that we committed to today when we looked at each other in the eye, then success is not far away from St Kilda," Lyon said.

"We acknowledged that we're going to have to push beyond what we thought was physically possible and we acknowledged that we needed to be brutally honest with each other in pursuit of being a great team."

Co-captain Nick Riewoldt won his fourth best and fairest, equalling a club record held by the legendary Harvey and former captain Bill Cubbin. In his acceptance speech, Riewoldt said the strong mateship within his playing peer group sometimes had been a hindrance.

"It's obvious we're all great mates and we all love each other and we all get along really well, but I think too often we often let our mateship get in the way of the truth and it gets in the way of us doing and saying the things we need to do and say to get a premiership," Riewoldt said.

In acknowledging an impressive list of Saints who retired at season's end — Fraser Gehrig, Aaron Hamill, Andrew Thompson, Brett Voss and Matthew Clarke — Lyon said their teammates needed to uphold the standards the retirees had set.

Gehrig spoke passionately about the seven years he spent at Moorabbin. "I had seven years at West Coast, which is a great club as well, and I had a lot of success over there, but it doesn't compare to the people I've met here, to be honest," he said.