ST KILDA has had salt rubbed into the raw wounds of its record 145-point thrashing by Hawthorn, with Jarryn Geary and Tom Hickey both set for extended periods on the sideline with injury.
Saints coach Alan Richardson said after Saturday's game that Geary had ruptured a tendon in his right elbow in the second quarter against the Hawks and would miss up to 12 weeks, while Hickey, who was ruled out during the week, had a hot spot in his foot that would sideline him for up to 10 weeks.
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Geary came from the field at the three-minute mark of Saturday's game at the MCG, heavily favouring his right elbow and was substituted from the match shortly after.
"Not a great 100th game for 'Gears', he's ruptured a ligament in his elbow so he's (out for) 10-12 weeks," Richardson said.
"It's disappointing, my understanding is he will have surgery."
Hickey's loss will be keenly felt by the Saints, as the former Gold Coast Sun has carried their ruck division this season in the wake of Ben McEvoy's trade to Hawthorn.
Richardson said Hickey's foot injury had flared during training in the lead-up to Saturday's match, but stressed reports that he had suffered a stress fracture were incorrect.
"He has soreness in his foot, so from a precautionary perspective, he goes into a moonboot," Richardson said.
"He's out for an extended period of time, not dissimilar to Geary, eight to 10 weeks.
"It had been reported that he had a stress fracture. That's not the case, there's no fracture. The scans showed a bit of a hot spot, which is a bit of a warming, so you've just got to get them off their legs."
Despite the galling magnitude of his team's loss to the Hawks, Richardson was measured during his post-match press conference, acknowledging the "absolute belting" the Saints received, but backing them to bounce back against Carlton on Monday week.
"I'm confident that we'll get our energy and our effort back," Richardson said.
"We've been pretty good in that area. In the Essendon game, which was in response to a pretty poor performance against Adelaide, even in the first quarter when we were getting beaten on the scoreboard, we were still in the game in terms of our energy and our effort.
"We'll certainly be treating this, while incredibly disappointing, as an anomaly with respect to the way that we've gone about our footy and we would expect that we'll come back with effort.
"I can't guarantee that, but I would be disappointed if we didn't respond with effort."
Richardson acknowledged the Hawks had given his team a lesson in ball use, but said his post-match focus would be on the Saints' inability to apply enough pressure on opposition teams and their inability to cope with the pressure that's applied to them.
The Saints coach took some positives out of the game, praising fourth-gamer Jack Billings and Hickey's replacement in the ruck, Billy Longer.
"We thought that he really stood up," Richardson said of Billings, who had 15 possessions, seven marks and kicked 1.1.
"He could have made more of his opportunities, but in terms of his effort in the contest, his ability to run and work for us … I thought he was a positive."
Richardson said Longer had lowered his colours in his ruck duel against McEvoy, but had shown signs he could carry the Saints' ruck division in Hickey's absence.
