ST KILDA needs to play with more bravery after it failed to record its first win in Wellington on Saturday at Westpac Stadium, coach Alan Richardson says. 

St Kilda fell to Carlton by 40 points in the club's third Anzac Day fixture at the venue, and its first against the Blues in New Zealand.

While Richardson was pleased they tackled more than they did against Collingwood last week, winning the count 96 to 86, he said his players needed to bring more flair and resist the temptation to go into their shells.

"It's two things; we’re either getting out-worked and out-run or we're just losing a bit of dare," Richardson said.

"As soon as the team we're playing starts to get a bit of momentum we just become a little bit conservative.

"It's somewhere there, we need to work through that with the playing group, we need to make sure we're continuing to improve each week and we identify what it is that's turning it around.

"We were able to do a bit of it in the last quarter even though the score didn't work for us, we took a bit of risk and played with a bit of dare.

"But we shot ourselves in the foot terribly with our disposal today."

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Richardson counted 11 Carlton goals kicked from turnovers, four of which happened 40m out from goal.

Fourth-gamer Jack Lonie was one offender when he kicked it straight to Andrejs Everitt in the third quarter, who responded with a quick goal.

Veteran Saint Adam Schneider was quick to encourage Lonie, who applied great pressure for much of the game, not to drop his head but Richardson said when it happened often, it could be demoralising.

The Saints again missed Nick Riewoldt (calf) and Leigh Montagna (knee), but Richardson said they were in doubt for the clash against Essendon next Sunday at Etihad Stadium.

"At this stage it's probably more unlikely than likely," he said.

"We'll just have to wait and see when we get back."

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Sam Gilbert (foot), Mav Weller (calf), Seb Ross (hamstring) and Farren Ray (hamstring) were also missing, which robbed the team of much-needed experience.

But Richardson said his young players were benefiting from the exposure to senior footballl.

"As a group they've embraced everything we've asked (and) we have to continue to do it," he said.

"It's a journey and one where we're going to get lessons along the way - we certainly got another one today.

"Clearances are something we must get right.

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"We think we have some really good people in there – [Luke] Dunstan's not flying, but he's whacking away … Jack Steven was well-held on the outside by Curnow, he's laid 11 tackles for us.

"David Armitage was pretty strong again. Billy Longer probably played his best game. Lonie was a real positive, he kicked a couple of goals and some of his pressure was outstanding.

"For the second week in a row it's been centre bounce clearances; when the opposition have got hold of us in there we just haven't been able to wrestle that back soon enough.

"But they didn't give up. We've laid 93 tackles, we kept going; they were just better than us late.

"I thought the blokes had a crack for four quarters. We just didn't have the polish."