St Kilda coach Alan Richardson is hopeful, rather than confident, that Nick Riewoldt will return for their massive AFL match against Adelaide.
The Saints star missed Saturday's 40-point loss to the Western Bulldogs with yet another knee injury, this time bone bruising.
"That's a good question - I'm hopeful ... I'm not 100 per cent confident," Richardson said, when asked about Riewoldt's availability.
"I've skirted around this one, haven't I?"
After next week's bye, St Kilda have a crucial Friday night match in round 12 against the Crows at Adelaide Oval.
They head into the break on the back of two poor performances at their Etihad Stadium home, having also gone down to Sydney last weekend by 50 points.
St Kilda would have broken into the top eight had they beaten the Bulldogs, but they were poor in the second half.
They are now 5-5 and their season of great expectations is at a crossroads.
"It shows we're not at the level of the better teams," Richardson said.
"Right now, if you were just to look at us on the last two weeks, then we're nowhere near where we need to be."
Richardson said the Saints gave themselves an opportunity in the first half, despite trailing by 16 points at the main break.
"It's frustrating (and) it's been our lot for a while now, to be able to maximise what we do with the footy," he said.
The Saints coach also said the impressive 95-62 tackle count was deceptive.
"Your initial response is 'I'm really pleased with their effort and perhaps (we) just weren't good enough with the footy'," he said.
"But no, that would be not right.
"While we still had a reasonably good attitude in terms of trying to get after the opposition, they were able to get through us."
St Kilda only managed seven goals from 49 inside 50s.
"They (Bulldogs) got bang for buck on their entries - we didn't," Richardson said.
Ruckman Billy Longer played well, but otherwise the Saints were well down in the midfield.
Jack Steven, who has averaged 28 disposals per game this season, only had 17 as Lachie Hunter shut him down.
"Weight of numbers, they certainly beat us through there," Richardson said.
But the Saints coach praised Koby Stevens, who had 28 disposals and eight tackles against his former team.
He said the midfielder should be proud of his performance in the Sir Doug Nicholls indigenous round.
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