ST KILDA midfielder Luke Ball uttered the dreaded "OP" in relation to his continuing groin problem last night, but said he was confident of seeing out the season.

"I don't think it can get any worse this year — we'll sit down at the end of the year and see how we go about getting it 100 per cent," he said on Channel Ten's Before The Game. "I think it's all related to that dreaded term OP (osteitis pubis) that we all use … "

Ball's co-captain Lenny Hayes kept the theme of cautious optimism going yesterday following the team's recent form revival and two-point victory over Adelaide on Friday, warning that much still needed to go right for the team to make the finals.

A day after coach Ross Lyon said his team was starting to produce the type of football needed to make the finals, Hayes said the Saints had plenty of improvement left in them and confidence was growing among the players as they chased a finals campaign that had seemed increasingly unlikely.

Hayes said he had been "very relieved" after the Saints' two-point win over Adelaide on Friday night and the team now had the scent of September action.

"As a team, we've been pretty up and down this year and (there's) no doubt that with Matty Maguire getting a few more games under his belt, and getting almost a full complement out there, we're feeling a lot more confident and we know that we can get better, for sure," he said.

"Over the last four or five weeks, we've had a lot of guys buying into the way we want to play and we've got back to playing some good hard and tough footy."

The Saints looked a spent force when they went into their mid-season break last month with a 4-7 win-loss record, on the back of four straight losses. They are now only a game out of the eight, though they may need to win all remaining seven home-and-away matches to play in the finals.

"It's mathematically possible, but we can't control what other teams do and I think if we are to make it, we might need a couple of teams to slip up," Hayes said. "But we need to keep playing well as a team and since the break, we've really started to play some good, consistent footy."

An Adelaide spokesman said Mark Ricciuto, who played on after injuring an ankle on Friday night, was expected to be fit for next Saturday's clash against Fremantle. He said there was more doubt over Ben Rutten, who was still in some pain from a corked calf.