COACH Brett Ratten is refusing to "get carried away" by St Kilda's barnstorming win over premiers Richmond, saying it's only a step in the right direction.

The Saints locked in their best victory of a turbulent season, restricting the Tigers to just two goals in a 40-point win last round and now sit 12th.

Ratten was quick to recall that just a few weeks ago the Saints were in turmoil after a crushing 111-point loss to the Western Bulldogs.

Ahead of a Sunday meeting with Collingwood at the MCG, Ratten said he wanted to see more consistency before making a statement that St Kilda's season was back on track.

"I'm personally making a point of not getting carried away," Ratten said after training on Thursday.

"We want to win games of football but that's what we expect - that effort and the way we play.

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"We don't need to get carried away with one win; we've got to start to build consistency in our form and that's the thing that's bugged us all year.

"Two weeks ago we felt miles off finals so we still want to stay in that place as it's only been one week."

Despite suffocating the Tigers, Ratten said his team hadn't changed its defensive structures, but had made it a focus following the Bulldogs.

"We made a conscious effort about our defence and leaking ... we didn't think it was going to be two goals but we did keep them to 12 shots which was really pleasing," he said.

"It's about the amount of ball that they got and the opportunities, and the other side of the coin is for us to kick goals when we get the chance which takes some of the pressure off and we did that."

Star midfielder Jack Billings is set return after he was a late withdrawal from the Tigers match with a knee issue, completing most of Thursday's session.

Skipper Jack Steele made an early exit from training but Ratten said it was about managing his workload while defender Nick Coffield is out for at least four weeks with a hamstring injury.