September may be out of the equation for the Saints in 2024, however Ross Lyon is steering well clear of ‘experimentation-mode’ as he and the Saints eye off a strong finish to the year.

St Kilda has games remaining against Geelong and Carlton before its campaign comes to a close, both of whom are jostling for a place in September and for the former, potentially a place in the top-four. 

Although providing a hint of “cheek” when asked if he had license to experiment over the next fortnight, Lyon was resolute in he and his assistant coaches picking “a team to win” as opposed to rolling the dice on the unknown.

“We’re a professional sporting organisation, a lot of responsibility, a lot of scrutiny… we don’t tend to muck around too much,” Lyon said at this morning’s press conference.

“If we experimented and lost by 20 goals and there was no media that would terrorise us and we didn’t have 60,000 members we have a responsibility to, we could probably throw it up in the air and see where it lands. But that’s not the space we live in.

“Players pick themselves. Zak Jones has been picking himself, Tim Membrey over the past few weeks… we don’t pick the team based on age, we pick the team to win.

“We do expose (players)… but within games it’s more about opportunity. We’ve got a responsibility to the playing group to pick teams to win and not muck around. If you muck around against serious football teams you get hurt pretty quickly.

“(Geelong) are a very, very good football team. If you pick up on their language coming out of them, they understand there’s a top-four position available and if they can play their best footy at the right time, they can win it.”

The Saints will be without Mattaes Phillipou for Round 23, who was withdrawn late from last Sunday’s game due to illness and has had virus symptoms persist into this week.

St Kilda won’t have to make any forced changes this week after coming out from its win over Richmond with a clean bill of health, however will have the likes of Hugo Garcia — who had 34 disposals, 12 tackles and three goals in the VFL this weekend gone — knocking on the door for a late-season recall.

Tackling and physicality will be top billing heading up against the Cats, with the Saints and Tigers recording the fewest tackles in a game (61) since Round 20, 2006.

“I think Geelong have been the number one tackling team on raw numbers in the competition for the year, it’s been a strength of theirs,” Lyon said.

“We’re expecting a more physical game, they play a finals brand so it’s a really good test for us.

“We’re certainly focused on improving our footy. Everyone’s had their moments and periods. We feel like since Round 12 we’ve been playing pretty decent football, but this is a new challenge and a big challenge, and one we’re excited about taking.

“They’ll be at their mental best I would assume, they’ve got key players in really good form — Dangerfield, Cameron, Stewart — and then they’ve got the young tyros like Holmes and those high forwards Close and Miers.

As the off-season fast approaches, Lyon said St Kilda would again attack the draft and get “creative” in finding talent off-shore, with Irish rookie Liam O’Connell — who has taken significant strides forward in his development in less than a year — a template for the club to explore moving forward.

“Every club is running a dual-narrative in taking care of the present and planning for the future,” Lyon said.

“Depending on where you’re at and over a long period of time… probably us over a 10-year period tells us we haven’t got to the levels where we’ve needed to. At some point you’ve got to flip the plan a little bit.

“We’ll go to the draft again after a period of not drafting a lot of picks and trying to get picks inside 40, because they’re valuable. You’ve got to be creative, you’ve got to take a little bit of risk and pull all the levers.

“We’ve got the Irish experiment and we’ve got Liam O’Connell here, there’s free agency that you try and get and you’re fighting to keep like Josh Battle, there’s NGA and the rules are shifting and tightening and you’ve got to manage your salary cap.

“There’s all those moving parts and ultimately you want to be a good club. We need to keep having discipline in all those areas and fight for every inch in all those areas to bring success to the club.”