ST KILDA forward Stephen Milne believes indirect play is responsible for the Saints' scoring woes so far this season.

In recent years, a Saints attack boasting stars such as Fraser Gehrig and Nick Riewoldt has put the club among the highest-scoring teams in the competition.

So far this season it is the AFL's second-lowest-scoring team, averaging 77 points a game, only one point better than Melbourne.

Milne believes that while Gehrig, Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke are all in solid form, the ball use up the field is hampering their scoring chances.

"We're not using our talls as well as we have in the last couple of years," Milne said. "I think we're mucking around with it a lot in the middle and not giving our forwards the advantage to get it. We've just got to get it in there a lot quicker to give them a chance to be one-on-one and not let the other team get two or three numbers back on us."

Milne has made a consistent contribution, with 14 goals from nine matches, but was looking for improvement ahead of today's Telstra Dome clash with Geelong.

"It can be a bit frustrating there at times, but you've got to make the most of your opportunities and I've been doing that a little bit," he said. "But hopefully I can pick it up this Sunday and kick three or four and set up a couple and hopefully we can beat the Cats."

Geelong is the competition's highest-scoring side, boasting seven players who have tallied 10 goals or more for the season so far, while just Gehrig, Milne and Riewoldt have done so for the Saints.

Milne said the Saints still regarded the Cats as one of their fiercest rivals, a feeling that stems from verbal hostilities exchanged when the teams met in the 2004 pre-season grand final.

"Over the past three or four years there's been a bit said about either club and each list," Milne said. "We've built up a bit of rivalry between the Cats and the Saints, so hopefully we can get 50,000 there and hopefully we can knock them over."

Meanwhile, Milne said he was unfussed about comments made by former coach Grant Thomas, who stated Milne would not be at the club if he was in charge.

"That's been in the papers and all that, so you can't really read much into that," he said.

"He's got his opinion and if he wants to say that, fair enough." AAP