St Kilda Senior Coach Alan Richardson is confident skipper Nick Riewoldt will be fit for Round 1 despite experiencing general tightness towards the end of Sunday's game.

In his post-match press conference, Richardson said the six-time Trevor Barker Award winner would be available for Round 1.

“The plan was for him to play 90 minutes or just close to that, he was just short of that. He just got a little bit tight late in the game – just general tightness. He’ll be fine,” Richardson told reporters after St Kilda’s final NAB Challenge game against Melbourne.

With Riewoldt playing predominantly on a wing, last year’s surprise packet Josh Bruce provided a focal point in attack, commanding plenty of the ball in the opening half. He looked ominous early taking three contested marks inside 50 in the first half, but was wasteful in front of goal, finishing with 2.2 for the day.

Jack Billings and Jack Lonie started like a house on fire with the former kicking three goals in ten minutes in the first quarter to emphasise his class in front of goal. He quietened as the game wore on, but Lonie produced a strong four-quarter performance to be one of the Saint’s best.

In the aftermath of the Saints’ four-goal loss to the Demons at Etihad Stadium, Richardson was pleased with some of his sides work in the forward half of the ground, although he conceded the final kick inside 50 requires some attention.

“I thought there was some positives with our front half. At quarter-time, both teams had had 12 entries, we had nine scoring shots, they had four, so that means things are working. I thought the guys showed a bit,” Richardson said.

“We were scratchy, we certainly had some reasonable build up offensively and got to our last kick and didn’t make the most of that.

“There was a period where [Tom] McDonald just marked the ball too often, and if [Paddy] McCartin doesn’t play, whilst our plan is to play ‘Rooey’ a bit higher, we might need to play ‘Rooey’ more as a forward.

“But today was for us to play him in the midfield and for us to create a bit of synergy there and to give Tim Membrey an opportunity there.

“In the second half we had a look at Tom Hickey as a forward; I thought he did reasonably well when ‘Holmesy’ went into the ruck.”

Emerging key forward Paddy McCartin still remains a chance to play in Round 1 despite missing another week due to the hamstring strain he suffered in the first NAB Challenge clash in Wangaratta.

Richardson refused to rule him out of the trip to Adelaide, but indicated it was unlikely he would be rushed back into the side after an interrupted build up to the season opener.

“He’s a chance. He didn’t play in the VFL on the weekend and you’d prefer him to have a game so it’s probably less likely than likely, but we’ll just have to wait and see,” Richardson said.

“From all reports he had a really strong training session, we won’t play this week but on Friday will do a fair bit of match simulation, particularly given we missed a game last week. My expectation is he’ll train in that and we’ll see how he goes.”