St Kilda defender Sam Fisher has no doubt the Saints will improve this season in their second year under coach Ross Lyon as the players become more accustomed to their new game plan.

The Saints missed the finals last year for the first time since 2003 but despite finishing ninth they still only conceded 32 points more over the entire home and away season than they did in 2004 when they came perilously close to winning the flag under former coach Grant Thomas.

Lyon insisted on a far more defensive game plan last year than used previously by the ultra-attacking Thomas and this was reflected in the fact they scored just 1874 points last season - nearly 600 less than that 2004 season.

Fisher, one of the key players of the Saints defence in the past three years, says the players now have a better idea of what is expected of them under the uncompromising Lyon.

"Definitely early on last year we obviously struggled in the first part of the year while Ross was getting to know our playing group and we were getting to know Ross' structures and so on," Fisher said on Thursday, on the eve of Friday's first round NAB Cup clash against Richmond.

"But now we have got another pre-season under our belt we have got to know his game-plan and structures a lot better so we are definitely a lot more confident going into this year."

Fisher also said the Saints, who have been badly hit by injuries to key players since 2004, were also much fitter going into this year with more key players available.

"The boys are confident with how training is going at the moment, everyone is up and running," he said.

"We have only got about five players in our rehab group so that is a really positive sign for us from where we have been previously, so we are all really looking forward to the season starting tomorrow night."