ST KILDA has identified an obliterated midfield as the reason for its collapse against the Western Bulldogs and will keep faith with veteran full-forward Fraser Gehrig and its three-pronged tall forward set up against Geelong.

While there has been much focus on the performances of Gehrig, who was talked back out of retirement over summer, and questions have been raised about whether three 193 centimetre-plus players can co-exist in one forward line, the Saints see their problems lying elsewhere.

The St Kilda brains trust has pinpointed the fact that it was blown away by the Bulldogs — the team it once exposed for size and strength — in the midfield contests.

The extent of the midfield collapse is borne out in the contested ground ball statistics. The Bulldogs won the disputed ball 68 times to St Kilda's 44 in the midfield — a staggeringly lopsided count, a tribute to the Bulldogs' new found hardness and an indictment on the midfield performance of St Kilda.

Former Swan Sean Dempster is set to be recalled to the side to bolster the club's running depth, with ex-Cat Charlie Gardiner also a chance to be brought back to play against his old club.

Clint Jones, who played for the Casey Scorpions on the weekend, is also a potential inclusion, and would add pace to a team that was out-run and out-bustled against the red-hot Dogs.

Ruckman Michael Gardiner, who missed with a minor calf strain, should be fit enough to resume, but, given the former Eagles' history of repeated injuries, the Saints are considering taking a conservative course with Gardiner and giving him another week off.

Raphael Clarke and Justin Geary are understood to be under pressure to retain their spots.

There is a possibility that key defender Matt Maguire, who has played the past three games for the Scorpions in the VFL, could finally return to the side and bolster a defence that, under relentless pressure from the rampant Bulldogs' midfield, coughed up an uncharacteristic 19 goals.

The Bulldogs scored from 38% of their forward 50 metre entries — a sign that the St Kilda defence was either overwhelmed by the one-way midfield traffic, or that the defence also broke down.

The St Kilda defence had been held up fairly well until Friday night's blow-out — when the Bulldogs reeled in a 37-point deficit and won by 38 points — and have seemed unsettled by the absence of core defenders Maguire and Steven Baker.