Under the guidance of Alan Richardson, St Kilda has built its brand around pressure with that non-negotiable the cornerstone of the Saints game. On Sunday afternoon, St Kilda will face the No. 1 ranked pressure team in the game in the undefeated North Melbourne, a challenge Richardson welcomes.

Across the opening quarter of 2016, North Melbourne has stamped themselves as the premier pressure team in the competition, with Brad Scott’s side ranked No.1 for pressure factor (pressure points per pressure chance) and No. 1 for tackles differential.

Opposed to a side that has proven to be so good around the ball and in tight encounters thus far in 2016 – North Melbourne has won three games by under three goals – Richardson indicated his side must bring their best level of physicality and intent to the game to take the contest to the ladder leaders.

“There's no doubt it'll be a challenge. They're a good team in really good form, (they're) undefeated obviously. The challenge is in front of us,” Richardson told reporters at a press conference on Friday.

“I thought what the Kangaroos did to the Bulldogs was equally as impressive. The Kangaroos have won in close contests, so they've been really strong there. Generally they've been high scoring games up until last week, so I think Scotty and his players will take a fair bit out of that.

“They’ve been very impressive in the contest. Their pressure, we talk about our pressure and the fact that's the cornerstone to our game, their No. 1 in the competition by a fair way.

“So they've been really strong in the physicality and pressure game and we're going to need to be good to be able to cope with that, but also to able to make sure we live up to our end of the bargain and dish a bit out.”

Aside from the underwhelming performance against Greater Western Sydney in Round 5, Richardson said St Kilda is plotting along the right course, compiling an impressive body of work in the first six rounds, particularly across the last month.

“We think our last month of games have been pretty solid. The GWS game was disappointing. The positives are when you are not playing well and you're within in 10-points at three quarter time that's a fair reflection of a lot of things that we're heading in the right direction,” Richardson said.

“We thought our Collingwood performance was strong. We thought our Hawthorn performance was positive. We thought last week against the Demons was positive.

“So, there's a bulk of footy there that on the whole is heading in the right direction and we now look forward to apply a methodology and our want and our hunger and the way we want to play against a team that's undefeated.”