St Kilda has returned to the winners' list after withstanding a third-quarter surge from Essendon to win by 36 points at Telstra Dome on Friday night.

The Saints led by as much as 51 points in the third term but six consecutive goals to Essendon narrowed the margin to just 22 before the Saints eventually ran out winners 18.15 (123) to 14.3 (87).

But the win has come at a cost for the Saints, who lost ruckman Steven King and possibly Nick Dal Santo to a shoulder injury in the third quarter though the latter returned to the field in the final term.

What appeared to be a comfortable St Kilda victory in the first half turned into a far more difficult assignment in the second after the Bombers broke the shackles applied to them.

Missing Scott Lucas, the Bombers' cause was not helped by a dirty night from skipper Matthew Lloyd - who was kept goalless by Max Hudghton.

Lucas' absence was glaringly obvious in the first half, which was played on St Kilda's terms, as the Bombers worked laboriously into attack. They managed just eight entries inside 50 in the first term, finishing the match with 39 to St Kilda's 56.

The Saints shut down Essendon's space and as a result the Bombers were unable to capitalise on their massive advantage in pace.

With Essendon's defensive pressure almost non-existent, the Saints piled on 12 goals in the first half, of which only five came from their forwards.

Charlie Gardiner, Fraser Gehrig's replacement, was important to the Saints' dominance in the first half, with two goals. Playing the role of a floating forward, his mobility and work rate gave youngster Tayte Pears severe headaches.

Nick Riewoldt played closer to goal and despite a case of the yips around goal relished having more space inside forward 50 to work with. Neutralised early by Paddy Ryder, Riewoldt finished the match strongly.

Rover Stephen Milne, perhaps playing for his league career, played with increased urgency. While he still produced moments which would have flummoxed any Saints fan, Milne's work rate was better than previous weeks.

His battle with Bachar Houli in the first half was one of the highlights of the night. Houli provided plenty of run, finishing with 23 possessions and two goals, but the Saints would also have been pleased with Milne's game.

Bombers fans will be wondering why the intensity shown in the third quarter was absent in the first half.

As they showed on Friday night, the Bombers play like a bottom-four side when not on song but when their running game is in full swing they are one of the most aesthetically pleasing teams to watch in the competition.

They had few players who contributed for the entire four quarters. David Hille battled gamely and did his best to provide a marking target coming out of defence, while tagger Henry Slattery did well to limit Leigh Montagna to 20 largely meaningless touches.

But the Bombers, who have now conceded 80 goals in the past four weeks, are not going to win many games unless Matthew Knights can get his players to work as hard defensively as they do when running forward.

ST KILDA: 5.3, 12.9, 14.12, 18.15 (123)
ESSENDON: 3.0, 6.1, 12.1, 14.3 (87)

GOALS: St Kilda: Riewoldt 3, Armitage 2, Ball 2, C. Gardiner 2, Koschitzke 2, Milne 2, X. Clarke, Dempster, Hayes,