Is the Saints' time up?

end of the season could easily have won the 2004 and 2005 premierships - instead of bowing out in the preliminary final in both seasons.

But just as Stan Alves found himself on the scrapheap as coach - just one season after leading the Saints to their first grand final in 36 years in 1997 - only to be replaced by a coach in Tim Watson who led the Saints' backwards, so history seems to be repeating itself at Moorabbin.

Thomas was dumped as coach after the Saints bowed out in the first week of the finals in 2006 by then president Rod Butterss at a time when the president and coach were feuding over many issues, some of them which had nothing to do with football.

Lyon, a former Sydney and Richmond assistant coach, was then appointed and was considered the man that would finally get the most out of what was perceived to be an ultra-talented list, that under Thomas had played with flair but ultimately had not been defensively well enough equipped to deliver on the big stage.

Instead just as when Watson replaced Alves a decade ago, the Saints have again gone backwards after harshly sacking a coach.

The Saints' biggest problem is their lack of potency in attack - a problem which the axing of veteran spearhead Fraser Gehrig has not alleviated.

In 2004 under Thomas the Saints averaged 111 points per game but last year under Lyon that figure slumped to 85 points per game while this year the Saints are only averaging 90 points per game.

In trying to make the Saints play a more accountable and defensive brand of football, Lyon - who served the final part of his long apprenticeship under Paul Roos at the ultra-defensive Swans - has only succeeded in making the Saints less potent, less successful and indeed far less entertaining to watch.

And with Robert Harvey and Gehrig surely in their final seasons and with full-back Max Hudghton and experienced ruck pair Steven King and Michael Gardiner also getting close to the end of their careers - is the Saints' 'window of opportunity' to win that long-awaited second premiership about to end?