AFTER round eight, St Kilda had just one win and a draw from seven matches, and sat 15th on the ladder.
Saints coach Ross Lyon had been reluctant to draw too many conclusions about his team's slow start to the season previously, but he had seen enough by then to conclude the Saints had slipped since contesting the 2009 and 2010 Grand Finals.
"The bottom line is we're not the same team," Lyon said at the time.
It was hard to argue with him. The Saints were the No. 1 defensive team in 2009 and 2010 - they conceded just 64.1 points a game in 2009 - but in this season's first eight rounds conceded 89.7 points a game.
Their scoring had also ground to a trickle. Ranked fourth in 2009 - when they averaged 99.9 points a game - and eighth in 2010, St Kilda's average score of 76.6 points was better than only Gold Coast's.
However, the Saints have looked much more like their former selves since beating Melbourne by 20 points in round nine.
That win kick-started a run of nine from 11 games, including six on end. St Kilda's only losses in this time have come at the hands of the competition's top two teams, Collingwood and Geelong.
After the Saints' 41-point victory over Fremantle last Friday night, Lyon gave an insight into how they have turned their season around.
"We're certainly playing a different brand, it's up-tempo. We're quite (a) high play-on (team)," he said.
Lyon's assertion the Saints are playing on more and moving the ball more quickly is supported by statistics.
In the first eight rounds, they were the 13th ranked team in uncontested possessions, but have since climbed to second. In the first 14 rounds, they were 11th in playing on after a mark (averaging 37.3 a game) but have since risen to second (43.9).
The Saints' new attacking style has lifted their average score by almost 16 points a game since round eight, to 90.5. They have also averaged an additional three forward-50 entries a game.
The day after beating Fremantle, Lyon told SEN radio the Saints' clearance work at centre bounces had also improved dramatically in recent weeks.
Clearance statistics support Lyon. Ranked 17th in clearance differentials after round eight as they came to grips with Lenny Hayes' absence with a season-ending knee injury, the Saints have since improved to 10th.
Any discussion of St Kilda, however, would not be complete without touching on defence. This was the cornerstone of its 2009-10 Grand Final years, when it led the competition for least points conceded.
We saw the Saints' defence spring a leak at the start of this year. However, since round eight, Lyon's men have rediscovered their miserly ways, cutting the average score against them to 67.4 points, second only to Collingwood.
Lyon is by no means saying the Saints are back to their 2009-10 best. After the Fremantle win, he merely said they were starting to win some respect back.
They will win even more respect if they put up a good performance against Collingwood this Friday night.
Former Sydney Swans coach Paul Roos, who Lyon served under as an assistant coach before joining St Kilda in 2007, said the Saints' six-goals-to-nil last quarter against Fremantle suggested they might be capable of mixing it with the Magpies.
"It was probably the first time (this season) we've really seen St Kilda go to another level," Roos said on Fox Sports' On The Couch.
"Their last quarter was a bit like the last two years where they just went bang and all of a sudden it was six goals in a row."
By late Friday night, we will have a much better idea of just how good St Kilda's revamped 2011 model is. Rest assured, there will be some nervous teams in the finals if its form spike continues.
This article first appeared in the AFL Record
