Emerging St Kilda midfielder Luke Dunstan admits belief against the best teams in the competition has been an issue previously, but after the weekend’s confidence boosting performance, the Saints now know they can beat the best.

Narrow losses against Hawthorn and North Melbourne had indicated Alan Richardson’s side could compete with the best, although gallant losses were still losses.

So after Saturday night’s stunning three-point upset over premiership favourites Geelong, hard-nosed onballer Dunstan says the result has injected St Kilda with a big shot of confidence.

“I think in the games we’ve been expected to win I think we’ve been really good, but the belief in the games against the top sides where we can lose a bit of confidence and go within ourselves is the ones we’ve struggled in,” Dunstan told Melbourne radio station RSN on Tuesday.

“I think to get the win on the weekend is a massive confidence booster and will just give us confidence going forward to know we can do it and match it with the top sides. As long as we keep worrying about what we’re doing I think the rest will take care of itself.”

St Kilda’s first win over a top-eight side this season went some way to alleviating the pain attached to disappointing losses against West Coast (103-points) and Adelaide (88-points) on the road.

Dunstan revealed there were robust discussions following the Saints poor performances interstate, with the football department implementing initiatives in an attempt to end an unwanted trend.

“There were some pretty heated conversations after losing over in Perth to West Coast by 100-points. Then I think it was two weeks later we lost to Adelaide in Adelaide,” Dunstan said.

“He just recognised there was a theme starting to happen, so he wanted to cut it out as soon as he could. We’ve put some things in place now to cut it out and this is the next chance we get against Gold Coast this weekend.”

Midway through his third season at Linen House Centre, Dunstan has taken another step forward in his development this year, becoming even more damaging with his pressure around the ball and attack at the coal face.

The South Australian has played all but one game in 2016 and is averaging 18.0 possessions, 5.0 tackles and 3.6 clearances, and more importantly becoming more damaging with his disposal and decision making.

“I feel like I’ve been going okay. Obviously there’s a few guys going pretty well in our midfield – Jack Steven and Sebby Ross have had pretty good years,” Dunstan said.

“I’m just happy to be playing my role at the moment and really bringing aggression to the contest and just getting back to tackling and winning contested ball.”

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