A bitterly disappointed Ross Lyon has conceded his side must win its remaining three matches to have any hope of making the finals, following their 17-point loss to the Swans on Saturday night.

The Saints now find themselves in an even more precarious position outside the top-eight with matches remaining against Fremantle, West Coast and Richmond.

When asked his thoughts on his team's current position after the match an emotional Lyon made his feelings quite clear.

"I don't think it makes too many St.Kilda people happy, it certainly doesn't make me happy or the group happy," Lyon said.

While Lyon was unable to fault his player's effort he was prepared to label the performance ill disciplined.

"I'll have to bite my tongue a little bit and review it tomorrow and Monday. I thought we competed pretty well, I thought some of our decision making and probably our discipline at times was poor," Lyon said.

"It was a really critical game tonight, there were just critical junctures in the game that didn't seem to go our way, we didn't get right."

"They're a benchmark team aren't they and we were in it all night, and it could have maybe gone either way but you want to be getting across the line with confidence," he said.

The Saints entered round 19 level on 38-points with the Lions and Bulldogs, who also suffered defeats on Saturday.

But Lyon refused to entertain any thoughts of making the eight unless his side can win its remaining home-and-away fixtures.

"Obviously there's three (games) left, the results are obviously a bit skewed at the minute but if you don't win games."

"If you play good football and you win three games that's going to give you an opportunity," Lyon said.

"We're about trying to win a premiership. At the minute the footy we're playing isn't going to quite win one."

"You don't want to be limping in you want to be playing good footy so we've got some things to improve to become the team we want to be," he said.