He will always be remembered as one of the truly great exponents of Australian football, a player with the rare blend of skill, concentration and courage who formed partnerships with two of the greatest forwards the game has produced, Darrel Baldock and Royce Hart.
Coincidentally, all three men hailed from Tasmania during a period when the country's smallest state contributed some unforgettable talent to the national game.
This was a great opportunity to display his talents: playing in the centre, he was matched against Alastair Lord, who went on to win the Brownlow medal that year.
Several other VFL clubs were impressed by Stewart's performance against Victoria and wanted to sign him, while St Kilda believed he needed another year in Tasmania to develop.
St Kilda coach Allan Jeans quickly realised that the new boy needed to be in the play as much as possible, so he was switched into the centre, where he remained for the rest of his career.
The Stewart-Baldock combination drove the Saints into the finals, where they were unlucky to lose the semi-final to Melbourne due to inaccurate kicking in the last quarter.
The club's administration had decided to accept an offer to relocate to outer-suburban Moorabbin, thus abandoning their spiritual home of almost one hundred years.
As the reigning Brownlow medallist, Stewart thought he would only poll 14 or 15 votes, adding that he felt his last three or four games of the season had been poor.
At the time of the broadcast, Stewart had been staying at a friend's place in Seaford and was ill with gastroenteritis, but went later that evening to a television studio to be congratulated by club officials and the media.
Stewart bounced back with a best afield performance the following week, guiding his team to a revenge win over Essendon and keeping alive the dream of a first flag.
They only got there thanks to an eight-goal win over Geelong in the final round but, facing the same opposition in the semi-final, lost by 44 points – a 92-point turnaround in a week.
[5]In 1971, the idea that two star players would be traded for each other was uncharted territory for Australian football (although Richmond was to be once again involved in controversy in 1975 when they pushed their luck too far and swapped the future Brownlow medallist Graham Teasdale, state representative ruckman Brian "The Whale" Roberts, and talented half-back-flanker Francis Jackson for South Melbourne's John Pitura, who was only to play 38 senior games at Richmond in three years).
The VFL had only recently sanctioned transfer fees, which usually amounted to no more than a couple of thousand dollars, but top line players did not swap clubs, and certainly not dual Brownlow medallists.
The two men were a stark contrast: Barrot was a burst player, specialising in the booming drop-kick into the forward line (often from the centre circle into the goal-square) and the extravagant gesture; and, although devastating and spectacular, he was also moody and undisciplined and was subsequently diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
After dominating in two premiership victories, the Richmond hierarchy felt that Barrot's faults outweighed his attributes and that his time was up at Punt Road.
Richmond used the Barrot situation as a pretext to recruit Stewart, who had told St Kilda he would probably go to Perth and find a coaching job in the league there.
When the Saints were eventually prepared to sign Barrot, Stewart made a late request to go to Richmond, ostensibly saving St Kilda a transfer fee.
There, he played a handful of games for the Tigers' old rivals, but had a physical confrontation with coach Ron Barassi at half time in the last round of the season, which resulted in Barrot walking away from VFL football forever.
In the third quarter, Stewart suffered a leg injury which severely impacted his mobility, but because the interchange rule had not yet been introduced, he was moved to a forward pocket.
Just months after his last game, Stewart took a punt by taking on the coaching job at the embattled wooden spooners, South Melbourne.
The thrilling campaign to make the 1977 finals was highlighted by a withering run in the last six weeks of the season and a bold stroke by Stewart.
Captain Robert Walls left for Fitzroy; his veteran teammate Peter Jones (who, like Stewart, had started his career with North Hobart) was relegated to the reserves; club favourite Adrian Gallagher was removed from his assistant coaching position.
In reality, Stewart's three-year stint with the Swans developed into a holding pattern for the team as the club flirted with, then agreed to, a move to Sydney.
Stewart's role as coach in 1981 was made all the more difficult when he had his driver's licence cancelled for two years, when he was found guilty of having driven dangerously, and having failed to stop after an accident.
"[10] After serving as general manager at St Kilda for three years during the tumultuous 1980s, Stewart cut ties with football and became involved with various business ventures, including uranium mining in the Kalahari Desert.
[5] But when the Saints' fortunes improved during the 2000s, he eventually returned to the club, even flying back to Melbourne from a business trip to watch the 2010 AFL Grand Final replay.
[5] On 31 August 2006, tragedy struck the Stewart family when 25-year-old daughter Amy died from injuries sustained when her car hit a tree in country Victoria.
[11] In July 2012, Stewart was admitted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital after suffering what he initially thought was a stroke, but was later diagnosed as Guillain–Barré syndrome.
[13] Stewart is not the first Australian footballer to have suffered from Guillain–Barré syndrome; former Collingwood wingman Graham Wright was diagnosed with the condition in 1993 and took three months to recover.
[13] In July 2014, it was reported that Stewart, who had settled in Woodend, had donated some of his football memorabilia to raise funds for local charity Artists for Orphans.