St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson admits his side has an issue performing away from home, following a ninth consecutive loss interstate, this time against Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium on Saturday.

Since beating Brisbane at the Gabba last May, the Saints have lost in Sydney, Adelaide, Launceston, Perth and now on the Gold Coast, with the 40-point loss to the Suns confirming a clean sweep of losses on the road this season.

Following St Kilda’s fifth interstate loss this year, Richardson conceded that while he prefers to look at each performance individually, he couldn’t refute the reality that travel is an issue for the Saints.

“We can’t deny that. They’re performances that we don’t think we’ve been at our best,” Richardson said in his post-game press conference on Saturday.

“We look more at the way we play as opposed to the oval that we play on or whether we’ve had to travel, but it’s a bit too consistent now."

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Richardson said the age profile of the Saints' list wasn't an excuse for their poor away form, with St Kilda possessing enough experience and enough emerging, young leaders to cope with the difficulties associated with playing interstate.

“We’ve got a really good blend of maturity and young guys. Often with really young teams the travel can be an issue," Richardson said.

“But [Nick] Riewoldt, [Leigh] Montagna, [Jarryn] Geary, [Sam] Gilbert and there’s certainly that next group that’s pushing through – [Seb] Ross played 50 games last week – there’s that next generation of players coming through.

“We don’t travel again at this stage (this year) – we’re playing at home, but it’s something we’d look at.”

After impressive wins against Geelong and Carlton either side of the mid-year bye, St Kilda was poised to continue their rich vein of form against the AFL’s second newest franchise.

Asked for the reasons behind the performance in his post-mortem, Richardson said there was no issue with the preparation leading in with the club implementing a tight structure to the trip to ensure the playing group was primed to go.

“I felt our prep was strong, they appeared really alert and ready to go,” Richardson said.

“It was a real hit and run job, we got in trained yesterday (so) you’re not hanging around all day. It’s a 1.40pm start. I thought our preparation was really positive.

“I thought on the back of feeling pretty good about the way we were playing footy – our last two performances had been positive – I felt we were in good shape that way.”

St Kilda has the opportunity to atone this Sunday when they face bottom placed Essendon who are also coming off an interstate trip following their loss to West Coast last Thursday night.

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