IT WAS the mid-season break last year that helped St Kilda turn around a season rapidly heading nowhere.

The Saints had won just four games of 11 and lost their past four straight when they took their mid-year sabbatical. They returned a different team, losing only three more for the season and missing out on the finals by just half-a-game.

This year, a week off has come a month earlier, and at 4-3, the situation superficially doesn't seem quite as grim. But St Kilda will be praying that a free weekend has again proved a precursor to a dramatic change in form and good fortune.

Because only one-third of the way through the season, Friday night's Telstra Dome clash with Collingwood already presents a grand final of sorts. One which, should it lose, might just about finish St Kilda off as a credible premiership contender, not only this year, but for who knows how long?

Certainly, the symbolism would be writ large. Defeat against a team hardly overflowing with confidence itself, Collingwood leapfrogging the Saints on the ladder as a result, along, potentially, with four other rivals. A truckload of injuries, other key players struggling badly for form. And the prospect of the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba, the barnstorming Western Bulldogs and Sydney at the SCG to follow.

St Kilda won what turned out to be a pretty gutsy victory over Richmond in round seven, having lost an army of players to injury during the game. But the Saints nevertheless did so on the back of a seven-goal haul from Stephen Milne, and with key players down.

They'll need to be gutsier again to survive the next month with their optimism and flag prospects intact, given the list of opponents to confront, and the steadily dwindling numbers of personnel available to do so.

Key men, too. Nick Riewoldt? Enough said. He might not be back for a month. Two key defenders in Max Hudghton and Matt Maguire, the latter gone for the year, and a potential replacement in Sam Gilbert already out.

That's hardly timely when the opposition this week has outscored everyone bar the top three teams on the ladder, includes two big key forwards in Travis Cloke and Anthony Rocca, a dangerous mid-sized goalkicker in Paul Medhurst, and wildcards like Leon Davis and Dale Thomas.

There's a missing No. 1 ruckman in Steven King. Defensive run from Xavier Clarke, and perhaps a lock-down type in Steven Baker. There's holes every where you look in the St Kilda line-up at the moment.

Do the Saints have the necessary armory to fill them? Or those struggling for touch enough time to turn things around before the situation has slipped too far?

King's absence places pressure on Michael Gardiner, for whom the Richmond game was his first senior hitout for five weeks, and appropriately rusty. Now there will have been another fortnight between games.

Justin Koschitzke can help out there, but that just robs Peter to pay Paul when it comes to forward-line potency, particularly with Fraser Gehrig struggling as much as any Saint at the moment.

The G-train has just eight goals from his four games, and only four in his past three. He hasn't had much else to offer, either, yet to register even a single effective tackle this season.

Much was made during the NAB Cup of the newer and lesser lights who were emerging to help the St Kilda cause. David Armitage has shown some promise. But Clinton Jones and Jarryn Geary, who looked so good in February and March, have played just three games each in the premiership season.

It's still coming down to the familiar St Kilda faces. And, sadly, another familiar St Kilda story, injuries, is being told yet again.

An appropriate change on that front was the premise on which so many of us placed faith in the Saints' ability to challenge the likes of Geelong this season. So much faith that of eight tipsters in The Age's Footy 2008 guide, six had St Kilda either winning the flag or, at worst, reaching the grand final.

But again the gods aren't smiling on Moorabbin. Yes, there's still time to re-write the script unfolding before us. But it has to start now. This week, against a team whose questioning of itself at the moment must be just as great.

It's a huge clash, perhaps even bigger now the momentary pause in the season's proceedings has given time for reflection and regrouping.

That seemed to do the trick last year for the Saints. It had better do again. While it's only round eight and mid-May, Friday night's is a game St Kilda simply can't afford to lose.