LUCKLESS St Kilda midfielder Jack Billings is set to miss at least a month with a hamstring injury as Ross Lyon called for the Saints to return to playing brave football.

The Saints take on Sydney on Thursday night at the SCG – where they haven't won since 2009 – hopeful of recapturing some consistency after two losses in their past three games.

Ominously, the match is Lance Franklin's 350th, with the Swans superstar seemingly always saving his best for milestone games against St Kilda.

The Saints will be without Billings, who suffered a grade two hamstring tear in the final minutes of his last VFL game which will sideline him for four to six weeks.

The 27-year-old already missed the first two months of the season due to a leg fracture.

"I spoke to Jack during the week – he was really close to selection," Lyon said.

"We feel for him as he's worked his butt off, but hopefully he's in good shape and comes back quick."

Sitting in fifth after leading back in round five, Lyon said the impressive early form had given the Saints "money in the bank", but that wouldn't last long.

"We've had an enormous amount of injury but we find ourselves in pretty good shape, because we were brave enough to give everything with no guarantee," the coach said on Tuesday.

"We acknowledge two out of our last three weeks hasn't been great but we've got money in the bank.

"We've had a lot of deposits so we're not overly stretched, but we're agitated about getting back to our best version of ourselves and we'll see where that takes us."

Under then-coach Brett Ratten, St Kilda was 8-3 coming off the bye last year but then faded dismally, only managing three more wins, and failed to make finals.

Lyon said his take from the outside on 2022 was that the team lost key personnel and then lost confidence and form, while this year was the opposite, with injured stars coming back into the side after missing early rounds.

"Our narrative has been those stars were missing, the same players were missing (in 2022), but we've been able to win lots of games," he said.

"History, it doesn't predict ... but what I do know is that we need to get moving, we need to improve and continue to be emotionally brave, get up there and fight the fight."