ROSS Lyon's "year of exploration" has reached its discovery: St Kilda is mediocre.

Amid an insightfully frank press conference after the side's defeat to Gold Coast last Saturday, Lyon described St Kilda as a "fumbling, stumbling mess" and said "we just couldn't have been any sloppier".

Lyon labelled the Saints' offence as "totally lost and confused", saying they "abdicated responsibility to use the ball well". The comments were reflective of a season that showed initial promise, but has quickly turned into one of frustration.

Still boasting a 9-8 record and sitting inside the top six, St Kilda's finals chances are now dangling by a thread. But, according to a frustrated Lyon, they might be over with completely.

"I hear that narrative, but to be honest – with how we've been playing – we don't deserve to play (finals) and we won't earn the right. If we play like today, we won't challenge North Melbourne next week," he said after the loss to the Suns.

"At the minute, we're not even thinking about it. With the way we played today, we're not going to beat many teams. When our top flights aren't really going, there's not enough quality to step up and take the load off them. As harsh as that might be."

Lyon, back at St Kilda after 11 years away and three seasons out of the game completely, later described the 2023 campaign as a "year of exploration" for the club. His findings would be stark.

He has good reason to be frustrated, as well. According to Champion Data, the Saints are wildly unpredictable in their scoring and ball movement profiles. That's before you get into the costly individual skill errors he referenced so damningly on Saturday.

"Lack of skill, lack of ball handling, lack of technique, handballing at feet. I've seen it for a long period of time now, the same guys making the same errors. We've got to improve our craft. As a coaching group, we've got to improve our coaching program," he said.

The skill errors are highlighted by the fact that Champion Data recognises St Kilda as the worst team in the competition for conceding opposition intercept marks, averaging 18.8 per match.

Across its past five defeats, St Kilda has conceded five intercept marks to Gold Coast's Wil Powell, eight to Melbourne's Steven May, nine to Brisbane's Harris Andrews, six to Richmond's Nick Vlastuin and eight to Hawthorn's James Sicily. Bear in mind the individual record for intercept marks in a game is 10.

But that's not the only statistical metric that would be utterly confounding to Lyon, given the positives for St Kilda are elite but the negatives are among the worst in the entire competition.

For example, this season the Saints rank No.1 in the League for disposals and are averaging 390.7 touches per game. But they also rank dead last in the competition for disposals against, conceding 386.1 per game.

St Kilda ranks No.1 for percentage of scores from intercepts, racking up 63.5 per cent of scores from that source. But it lacks variety in how it scores, ranking at the very bottom for percentage of scores from stoppages at just 34.3 per cent.

The Saints rank No.1 for percentage of time they use the boundary from defensive 50, doing so 54.7 per cent of the time. But they then rank dead last in using the corridor from defensive 50, doing that just 13.1 per cent of the time.

Lyon's team ranks No.1 in the League for transition rate from defensive 50 to forward 50, doing so 24.2 per cent of the time. But it can't translate that to high-scoring affairs, with St Kilda games averaging just 148.5 points – the lowest in the competition.

It doesn't end there, either. St Kilda ranks behind only Port Adelaide for percentage of kicks forward at 89.7 per cent. But, again, it then ranks at the very bottom of the League for percentage of long kicks at 37.9 per cent.

The Saints also rank No.2 behind the Demons for preventing opposition scores per inside 50, at a rate of just 40 per cent. But they also rank dead last in the competition for scoring per inside 50, converting at a rate of only 38.7 per cent.

For every positive, there has been a glaring negative for St Kilda this season. Lacking the balance of good teams, it's clear why the Saints haven't won successive matches since their first four games. And, judging from his comments over the weekend, it's a viewpoint Lyon shares.

"We can't hide away from that; we need to improve. Otherwise, it's going to be hard work."