EVERY struggling AFL club now wistfully looks at Port Adelaide's 2013 season and thinks "if only ..."

St Kilda coach Alan Richardson was the Power's director of coaching when they dramatically transformed from a 14th-placed rabble to fifth-placed boom team.

This year, Port should challenge for the flag.

Last year, the Saints finished bottom for the first time since 2000.

Richardson admits to reminding his players once or twice in this pre-season about what happened at Port.

And much more importantly, how it happened.

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"As a coach, there's a lot of storytelling that happens - and I don't mean you're making up stories," Richardson told AAP.

"You're certainly referring back to some of your experiences so that you can really make the message stick.

"I haven't laboured the point, but I've spoken about the attitude of the group at Port Adelaide.

"Clearly, what did happen was there was a playing group over there that rolled their sleeves up and worked their backsides off and wanted to do something about the situation that they and their footy club found themselves in."

There are obvious differences between the Port of two years ago and St Kilda's current scenario.

Most glaringly, the Power had a much more balanced playing list and nothing of the Saints' black hole between the veterans and youngsters.

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Regardless of the circumstances, Richardson keeps coming back to two words - hard work.

Under Richardson and his predecessor Scott Watters, St Kilda has had the right outlook of smart drafting and putting as many games into those kids as possible.

No.1 draft pick Paddy McCartin and defender Hugh Goddard lead the latest crop.

St Kilda showed signs of life last year, but all too rarely.

There was no continuity in the team as it went through 42 players.

There has also been a rash of hamstring injuries in the pre-season, with Farren Ray and Seb Ross to miss big chunks of games.

But whatever happens, Richardson will demand greater consistency of effort from those who are playing.

"The conversations have gone along the lines of, 'if you can do it, you can do it'," Richardson said of their pre-season.

"And that's led onto 'if you're good enough, you're old enough'."

In the past three years, they have lost Lenny Hayes to retirement, plus Nick Dal Santo and Brendon Goddard to free agency.

Any team would suffer losing a trio of that calibre.

It puts even more emphasis on the few veterans who are left, such as captain Nick Riewoldt, Leigh Montagna and Sam Fisher.

It cannot have been easy for players who went so close to at least one premiership in 2009-10.

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In the blink of an eye, their focus has had to become about leaving the right legacy at the Saints.

"Certainly there are no conversations that we spend on what's happened in the past and 'woe is me'," Richardson said.

The coach also admits to being careful about the season's targets.

"It's more about the way we want to play and what it means to become a consistent performer," he said.

"As opposed to, 'righto boys, out we go and we're aiming to win X amount of games'.

"It's not what this group needs.

"Having said that - playing to win - that certainly doesn't get left behind."