Round 8 won’t go down as one of the most memorable encounters for St Kilda, and while Ross Lyon is keen to move on, he certainly won’t be sweeping it under the rug as improvement remains top billing for the Saints.

Skill errors and inaccuracy in front of goal were prevalent in the Saints’ 30-point win over North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium, which saw sixteen behinds kicked to half-time and the Roos goalless before the main change.

St Kilda now sits third on the ladder behind Collingwood and Melbourne, with consecutive interstate outings against Adelaide and GWS to come.

“I think I concur, it was a messy game, wasn’t it?” Lyon said post-game.

“I think both teams would want to get rid of it pretty quick… but it was frustrating. When we had full opportunities, we turned them into half (ones). I thought we tried to take the game on and play quick, but we ran into errors.

“A bit of credit to North, they’re a young team that have come with a plan and challenged us in some ways. But I thought we overplayed stuff, we were clunky and they made us pay a little bit.

“We’ll take the four points. I just remember Paul Roos always saying ‘they’re bloody hard to win, so at least enjoy it and don’t be flippant about it’.”

Despite there being areas to address on-field, the Saints will have no injury concerns to be alarmed about heading into next week’s match.

Jade Gresham received a knock to his PCL and was subbed out of the game as a precaution, while Rowan Marshall rolled his ankle and was rested in the final minutes. Both are expected to be available for Round 9.

Meanwhile, Max King is building closer towards a return following a shoulder and hamstring setback, but is no guarantee to slot back in, according to Lyon.

The key forward trained with the rehab group over the weekend and will need to complete both of next week’s main sessions to put himself in consideration, either for the AFL or VFL sides.

“I’ll sit down with him, like I did with Tim Membrey, and say ‘where do you think you’re at?’,” Lyon said.

“We know he’s done a mountain of work, it’s incredible. He’s probably as fit as he’s ever been.

“So how does he feel about his body? Does he think he needs one at Sandringham? Do we think everyone’s doing their job and we can’t bring him in, regardless of if he wants to play?

“It’s been a while and I said to him if it takes 20 weeks, it takes 20 weeks, we just want to make sure you’re ok.

“We all submit to the team’s needs in the end, everyone does, including Max.”