Shane Warne's son, Jackson, flips coin as St Kilda pays tribute to the late cricket legend

Shane Warne's son, Jackson, has been a central figure in AFL club St Kilda's tribute to his father, tossing the coin before the opening-round clash with Collingwood, happily watched on by his sister, Brooke.

Cricket legend Warne — who died of a heart attack on March 4 in Thailand — was a lifelong St Kilda fan.

Saints players wore black armbands in Warne's honour during Friday night's game at Marvel Stadium.

They also donned shirts during the warm-up with «WARNE 23» on the back, instead of their usual numbers, and a video tribute to Warne was played on the venue's new big screens at half-time.

The Saints had "#23" and "#708" painted on the Marvel Stadium turf, representing Warne's playing number and his total haul of Test match wickets.

«It's a sad moment,» St Kilda coach Brett Ratten told Fox Footy before the match.

«Warnie … what an icon, what a person. He was probably our greatest [cricket] player of all time.

»The great thing tonight is we'll be honouring Shane.

«We've got 50,000 members and, hopefully, he's there watching … and the chants go out for him.»

Ratten revealed that Warne had reached out to him over summer to offer his support to the Saints' football department.

«He was talking about helping out with some of our leadership program and how he could help,» Ratten said.

«I could just see the passion that he just wanted our club to be as best as they could be, and each of the individuals.

»That was the type of person that he was. He wasn't worried about his time, he just wanted to help.

«What a special man. It's very sad and our thoughts go out to his family, especially tonight.»

Wearing a St Kilda scarf, 22-year-old Jackson Warne embraced Saints captain Jack Steele at the coin toss and had two attempts at flipping it before