ST KILDA coach Alan Richardson was called upon to present to the board on Thursday after his side's disastrous start to the season in a meeting he admitted was "challenging" at times.
The Saints have not won since beating Brisbane in the opening round of the season.
Richardson told reporters at RSEA Park on Friday it was a "good meeting".
"That's not unusual (fronting the board). That's probably the first thing to call out," Richardson said.
"It was pretty simple really. What's going on? What are we doing about it and how can we help? That was from their end.
"(They were) really quite supportive, not to suggest at times they weren't quite challenging. That was the job of the board.
"We're not where we want to be, so appropriately those questions are asked. It was a good meeting."
St Kilda showed improvement last Saturday night against Fremantle, hitting back after the Dockers opened up a 43-point lead in the third term to finish with six goals in that quarter and dragged itself back into the game.
The Saints didn't finish the job but took lessons out of that performance.
"We've identified that when we can be really positive and bold with the ball, we look a harder team to play against and our guys got real clarity on that, so that's been a message," Richardson said.
"We trained really aggressively yesterday, without the ball and with the ball."
Richardson is backing in Jack Billings and Jack Newnes, two established names who have been down this year, when St Kilda hosts Collingwood at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.
"I like what Newnesy did last week. We pushed him forward (and he) gave us some real energy and speed. Those players don't get a lot of the ball, nothing like you'd normally get on the wing," Richardson said.
"I thought JB was, whilst not an outstanding performance, I thought he turned his game a little bit much more into the positive.
"We think, on the back of the way we performed in the second half and on the back of the way those individuals performed, they certainly earned their selection in the team and we think they'll be pretty strong for us this week."
