St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson admits the last fortnight has highlighted that the Saints aren’t where they want to be after Saturday’s loss to the Western Bulldogs followed a poor performance against Sydney last weekend.

Just two weeks ago, the Saints were 5-3 and full of momentum after arguably the best win of Richardson’s tenure against Greater Western Sydney.

But two resounding losses back-to-back against last year’s grand finalists have provided a reality check for St Kilda ahead of the mid-season bye next weekend.

“It shows that we’re not at the level of the better teams,” Richardson said in his post-match press conference after Saturday’s 40-point loss to the Western Bulldogs.

“Last week was a team that played really good footy, and they’re not one of the really good teams in terms of ladder position but they played really good footy last week.

“Right now, if you were just to look at us in the last two weeks, we’re nowhere near where we need to be. 

“Going into today’s game we’d won three out of four. The competition is so even, you have to play really good footy, maximise your opportunities, defend strongly and be at your best.

“We’re not where we want to be, we’re right in a group of a lot of teams now that will challenge and have aspirations to play finals that’s where we are.

“We know we have to improve to be fair dinkum to be in that space. We’re 5-5, we have no illusions about the work ahead of us.”

Despite St Kilda’s midfield being beaten by the Dogs, Richardson singled out Billy Longer following one of the ruckman’s best performances since crossing from Brisbane at the end of 2013.

The 23-year-old got the better of a combination of Tom Boyd, Jordan Roughead and debutant Tim English at Etihad Stadium, amassing a career-high 55 hitouts, 18 possessions (11 contested), six tackles and four clearances.

“I thought we got beaten in the midfield, but I thought Billy Longer was terrific,” Richardson said.

“I thought Billy, up against probably three blokes really, was really positive for us. He’s been in pretty good shape Billy.”

While Paddy McCartin didn’t make the most of his opportunities in the air, spilling a handful of marks he could have gobbled up, the emerging key forward still finished with an equal game-high nine marks, 15 disposals, two goal assists and 1.1.

Richardson said McCartin showed some signs and provided an option, but didn’t make the most of his marking opportunities.

“I thought Paddy did some good work. He certainly got some good opportunities,” he said.

“He dropped a couple of marks; one of Paddy’s real strengths is his marking and if you didn’t know Paddy’s history you’d probably walk away today and say the kids not a good mark, but that’s not true. He’s going to be a really good mark; he’s going to be a really good player in front of the ball.

“He’s still building his career, but I thought some of the work he did today to get off his man and give us something to kick to was pretty positive.”

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