AFTER losing four games in a row, St Kilda was two wins outside the eight and bereft of confidence and answers as to why it showed only glimpses of how it should play, St Kilda coach Ross Lyon said yesterday.

Having opened up its game and delivered the ball with purpose for a 10-minute burst in the final quarter, arousing the prospect of stealing a win, Lyon was at a loss to explain why his players could not sustain that type of play.

"At the minute we have lost a few in a row, we are bereft of confidence. You can't head down the confidence shop and buy it … we are playing in patches with our ball use," Lyon said. "Early in the last quarter, all of our supporters think — and I think and the players think — where has that been?

"It's not happening at the minute. It's happening in patches. I would like to think early in the last quarter is how we would like to play all the time."

He condemned the "butchering" of the ball and wondered whether, with more inside 50-metre entries than their opponents in recent losses, it was time to change the forward structure.

"It's a good question," he said. "It's a really good question, is it the chicken or the egg? When we moved the ball and moved it well, Fraser (Gehrig) looked dangerous and Rooey (Nick Riewoldt) looked dangerous.

"I think it is about flow and supply … I thought we butchered the footy."

Lyon said he was prepared for the inevitable criticism and focus the team's performances would attract.

"Clearly at the minute the performance isn't what the club would like it to be, the supporters and the executive of the club," he said.

"So that puts me under the spotlight and I have never shied away from that and I will deal with the public criticism that comes. That goes with the territory, that is fact.

"What deals with it is fixing performance … what I have to do is get some wins on the board. What I have to do is fix our ability to defend and fix our ability to score off the amount of inside 50s we are having.

"I think as coaches we all know it is your turn in the spotlight. Don't doubt yourself and prepare. That's all I can do."

Kangaroos coach Dean Laidley praised his team's ability not to be "seduced" into St Kilda's negative game plan. He said the team was playing as close to how he had wanted them to throughout his reign as coach.

"We stuck to our task today and didn't get seduced into playing that type of football," Laidley said.

"I thought we carried that out particularly well, the style they have played previously was a hell of a lot different."

Laidley, visibly upset during his post-match news conference, revealed that he had learnt after the match that an ailing family member had died during the afternoon.

"I have just come across some pretty bad news in regard to my family, so let's get this over as quickly as we can," he said.

Laidley said he was troubled that despite a win-loss record of 7-4, there remained great scepticism about his side.

"There's obviously people out there that still think our actions aren't speaking louder than our words — the tipsters and the bookies during the week — that is quite evident, but we know where we are at," he said.

"It's up to the players to determine where they are at, I am giving them the framework and they can take this wherever they want to take it. It is solely up to them."