St Kilda coach Ross Lyon and skipper Nick Riewoldt agree the club's brave decision to axe star pair Nick Dal Santo and Stephen Milne mid-season has been the catalyst for the Saints' stunning turnaround in the second half of the 2008 season.
As the Saints prepare for their third preliminary final in five seasons, the club's mid-season slump appears a lifetime ago.
The Saints began the year by winning the NAB Cup and started the home and away season as second favourites to win the flag behind reigning premier Geelong.
But after losing four games out of five from Rounds 8 to 12, the Saints looked destined to miss the finals for the second year running before the decision to axe both Milne and Dal Santo for the Round 13 match against Fremantle.
The Saints won narrowly but unconvincingly that night but with Milne and Dal Santo restored the following week scored a tough 15-point win over the Kangaroos on the Gold Coast - after trailing by four goals at quarter-time following a goalless first term - and from that moment the club has not looked back.
And while they go into Saturday night's game as underdogs, the Saints' recent record of nine wins from their past 12 matches (since Round 13) is actually superior to Hawthorn's form over the same period (eight wins from their past 11 matches).
Lyon said now in hindsight the decision to axe Dal Santo and Milne - two of the Saints' best players in last week's semi-final win against Collingwood - had been the catalyst for the club's revival.
"As coaches we (the Saints' match committee) took some responsibility for the integrity of (team) selection and our confidence was built on our actions," Lyon said on Tuesday.
"Our form is significant post the Sydney loss (in round 12 which precipitated the axing of Milne and Dal Santo) and we have won nine of 12 since then with a couple of close losses."
"Obviously some players were down on form at that time and clearly we could have dropped more than two."
Lyon said the Saints had been rewarded for taking the difficult selection road at that time.
"The easiest thing when well-respected or proven performers aren't playing well is to keep them going (in the senior side) and sometimes that is the soft option," he said.
"But all of a sudden (by dropping two senior members of the team) everyone on the list has said 'I will do the right thing here and if I produce I am going to be picked' and sometimes it is as simple as that."
Riewoldt said the message the Saints' coaching staff sent out by dropping Milne and Dal Santo for that Round 13 clash was immediately acted upon by the players and played a big role in the club's turnaround since then.
"That sent a message to the playing group that reputations would count for nothing going forward and it was all about our actions," he said on Tuesday.
"So we were able to develop some credibility in what we were trying to stand for as a club and a lot of young players have come into the team and complemented the older, more senior players really well and that all came about from the stance the coaches and the club took in Round 13 in making some hard decisions."