St Kilda is unlikely to play finals this season but coach Ross Lyon is more than comfortable throwing a few spanners in the works for his rivals.

After a 17.6 (108) to 8.7 (55) thrashing of top-eight hopeful Essendon at Marvel Stadium on Saturday, Lyon has set his set sights on upsetting red-hot Brisbane.

Further games against premiership aspirants Geelong and Carlton lie ahead in the last month of the home-and-away season.

"I'm happy to be 'The Grinch'," Lyon said.

St Kilda have won three of their past four matches, with victories over Sydney and Essendon proving they are capable of shaking up the finals mix.

The Saints completely dismantled the Bombers, taking a huge tally of 133 uncontested marks to control possession, and scored from 23 of 43 forward entries.

SAINTS MATCH CENTRE: View all news, stats and videos from Round 20

"You don't get uncontested marks if you don't run and work hard," Lyon said.

"Bar the second quarter I thought we were able to sort of pin them a bit, ground position-wise.

"Our centre-square bounce work has been as good as it's been the last couple of weeks.

While St Kilda's recent form has "validated" its hard work and pleased its coach, Lyon is left with a sense of 'what might have been' this season.

A run of narrow defeats earlier in the campaign cruelled their chances of playing finals again, after reaching the top-eight last year in Lyon's first season back at the helm.

"That frustrating period ... I look back now and geez it's (four) under six points and then there's an eight (point loss)," Lyon said.

"That's a bit of our own doing, our own fault, there was some personnel (issues) and you're playing some good teams."

Lyon pointed to his side's dominance at stoppage as a key driver in the win, saying critics of his defensive game plan misunderstood football.

"I don't know what people say," he said.

"The easy throwaway line is slow boring ball movement. The real analysts identify we're in the top four all year and have been for two years for scoring out of the backline off possession gain.

"The real analysts and the deep-divers understand it's stoppage power and scoring, and a little bit of forward-50 possession-gain scoring. So that's what deeper than a fingernail is. Those on the surface look at the end result and go 'that's what it is'.

"Funnily enough we scored 8.2 from stoppage today, which is probably our record. So it all depends on how you want to assess it... what your agenda is."

In a telling statistic, the Saints finished with a massive tally of 133 uncontested marks while winning the contested mark count 16-5.

"I thought we played really smart football," Lyon said.

"Our opposition (analyst) understands them really well and we executed on it.

"Everyone stood up but some of our younger guys like Wanganeen-Milera and Sharman and (Ryan) Byrnes ... there was a bit to like."