A subdued St Kilda squad gathered at Elwood Beach on Saturday morning for their after-match recovery session with the implications of the previous night's eight-point loss to West Coast still fresh in their minds.

The Saints are hanging on to eighth place on the ladder but will be displaced by the winner of Saturday night's Adelaide/Brisbane clash - or both if they happen to draw.

The bottom line is that, with one round to go, St Kilda's destiny is outside its control and the club needs other results to fall its way if it's to qualify for September.

It's not the ideal scenario according to co-captain Lenny Hayes.

"We're not out of it yet but obviously it's out of our hands," Hayes said.

"We've got to beat Richmond next week and if results go our way we might be a chance, but it was disappointing last night.

"We've just got to concentrate on the Tigers and go from there."

"If we sneak in, that would be fantastic."

Hayes firmly believes the team has some improvement in it and, in an even year, anything could happen in September.

He said the Eagles will be hard to beat if they can secure second place on the ladder and were always going to finish strongly on Friday night but said the Saints made it easy for them at times.

"We stuffed around with the ball a little bit and cost ourselves in the end so that was the disappointing thing," he said.

Hayes said he believes the Saints' inconsistent form back in April, May and June had left the club little margin for error in August.

"It's been a funny year. We let a few games slip early and I think that's really come back to bite us," he said.

"At the half-way mark we were really disappointed with the way we were going but in the second half of the year we've really showed what we can do and we can match it with anyone."

"We've got a lot more personnel out there in the second half of the year which is a real plus but if we don't make the finals … it’s going to be disappointing for us."

The Saints have also confirmed that Jayden Attard suffered a serious knee injury in last night's game and, having ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament, will have a knee reconstruction in the coming week.