ROSS Lyon couldn't help but chuckle as he sat down in front of the media following his side's nail-biting three-point win over Richmond on Saturday night.

"It's a good game, isn't it?" the Saints' coach laughed, as he relaxed post-match at Telstra Dome.

The Saints claimed the thrilling win after Tigers Kelvin Moore and Jack Riewoldt shanked opportunities to reverse the result in the dying stages, which left Lyon to assess his side's courageous performance as "spirited".

"There is relief, and there's some pride with the group's effort after half time under a lot of adversity, and a number of individuals down," he said.

"Collectively we played with a real spirit, I thought. We willed ourselves across the line. I don't think it was pretty; we've kicked 17 goals, which will keep a couple of people happy, including me, to get across the line.

"But, I thought we showed real fight and will and effort, and eventually the form will come."

Lyon said he had nothing to do but sit back and watch as Nick Riewoldt's younger cousin took a possibly match-defining kick after the siren, which ended up falling short and giving St Kilda the four points.

But Lyon had plenty of praise for the side that pushed the Saints all the way on Saturday night, and said his side had earned a weekend off following the hard-fought encounter.

"[Jack's] a beautiful kick. He might have had some empathy for Nick's knee, you never know," he said.

"I think in a lot of ways Richmond considered themselves a chance to win the game.

"They've been in really good form, and I don't think we can underestimate them, and I'm not a spokesperson for Richmond, but they've been in really good form over the last three rounds.

"Their contests and pressure and goal-scoring and use has been really outstanding, and they've played some really good teams so we always knew it was going to be tough.

"In a real sense, they dominated the contest up to half time, although early we were fine, but it was more counter-attack footy in a sense.

"Hopefully some of our players are playing in the 150th game, which will be good for them, but we get to regroup and nurse some of these sore bodies."

Lyon said "time will tell" if such a victory would galvanise the group, but he said he was pleased his players responded when told "they had to make a choice" at half time when trailing by a point.

He also said the win would "no doubt" leave his players in the right sense of mind heading into the Hall of Fame Tribute Match/bye weekend.

"I think it [would have been] a long two weeks, clearly, if we hadn't won," he said.

"They get time to reflect on what we did well and what we need to do better.

"They'll have a social gathering, the pressures of AFL footy are great and how they look after themselves is fantastic, so they'll get together over the next two weeks and let their hair down a little bit, which I encourage.

"Then it's on with the hard work again. It will be nothing dramatic; they'll have a barbeque or something, which is nice.

"Hopefully I get an invite."