ST KILDA is unlikely to play finals this season but coach Ross Lyon is more than comfortable throwing a few spanners in the works for his rivals.
After a 17.6 (108) to 8.7 (55) thrashing of top-eight hopeful Essendon at Marvel Stadium on Saturday, Lyon has set his set sights on upsetting red-hot Brisbane.
Further games against premiership aspirants Geelong and Carlton lie ahead in the last month of the home-and-away season.
"I'm happy to be 'The Grinch'," Lyon said.
St Kilda have won three of their past four matches, with victories over Sydney and Essendon proving they are capable of shaking up the finals mix.
The Saints completely dismantled the Bombers, taking a huge tally of 133 uncontested marks to control possession, and scored from 23 of 43 forward entries.
"You don't get uncontested marks if you don't run and work hard," Lyon said.
SAINTS v BOMBERS Full match coverage and stats
"Bar the second quarter I thought we were able to sort of pin them a bit, ground position-wise.
"Our centre-square bounce work has been as good as it's been the last couple of weeks.
"It's a little win here. We've just got to keep improving. That's the space we're in."
While St Kilda's recent form has "validated" its hard work and pleased its coach, Lyon is left with a sense of 'what might have been' this season.
A run of narrow defeats earlier in the campaign cruelled their chances of playing finals again, after reaching the top-eight last year in Lyon's first season back at the helm.
"That frustrating period ... I look back now and geez it's (four) under six points and then there's an eight (point loss)," Lyon said.
"That's a bit of our own doing, our own fault, there was some personnel (issues) and you're playing some good teams."
Lyon pointed to his side's dominance at stoppage as a key driver in the win, saying critics of his defensive game plan misunderstood football.
"I don't know what people say," he said.
"The easy throwaway line is slow boring ball movement. The real analysts identify we're in the top four all year and have been for two years for scoring out of the backline off possession gain.
"The real analysts and the deep-divers understand it's stoppage power and scoring, and a little bit of forward-50 possession-gain scoring. So that's what deeper than a fingernail is.
"Those on the surface look at the end result and go 'that's what it is'.
"Funnily enough we scored 8.2 from stoppage today, which is probably our record. So it all depends on how you want to assess it... what your agenda is."
In a telling statistic, the Saints finished with a massive tally of 133 uncontested marks while winning the contested mark count 16-5.
"I thought we played really smart football," Lyon said.
"Our opposition (analyst) understands them really well and we executed on it.
"Everyone stood up but some of our younger guys like Wanganeen-Milera and Sharman and (Ryan) Byrnes ... there was a bit to like."
Essendon coach Brad Scott was left searching for answers after the Bombers' finals hopes were dealt another massive blow in the loss.
The Saints piled on seven goals to one during the decisive period, including three majors to skipper Jack Steele, as Essendon failed to fire a shot in one of the most important moments of their season so far.
Scott had no explanation for his side's "lack of competitiveness" and "negligible pressure" in such an important fixture.
"It's extremely disappointing," he said.
"The end result is disappointing but more disappointing than that was our lack of effort and intent, which has been present for most of the year.
"Particularly in the third quarter, our effort and intent in the contest was really poor.
"Across the course of the game it was poor and it doesn't take much, if you drop off in that area, for you to look second-rate.
"We looked third-rate today."
The 53-point loss was further soured by an injury to star defender Jordan Ridley, who was subbed out of the game in the third quarter.
Ridley missed the first half of the season with a quadriceps injury and took a heavy blow to the same leg in a marking contest.
"It was to the front of his hip and we had some concerns around his quad that he's injured before," Scott said.
"He had a fair bit of pain and couldn't function, so we had no choice but to sub him off.
"We'll scan that and fingers crossed.
"It presents like a knee to the hip which is a pretty severe cork and hopefully it's nothing more serious."
