ST KILDA'S unattractive, fiddly, lockdown first half against Port Adelaide last Saturday night prompted coach Ross Lyon to express bewilderment as to why his side had played in a manner for which it was unpractised and uninstructed.

It was not the first time, however, that the players had swayed from instruction in this way and was the reason why yesterday's match review at the club would have been a searching affair.

Club president Greg Westaway is cautious to remain within his province of knowledge and not tread in football matters beyond his expertise, but he felt the football department would be reviewing how it was that the players had again strayed from instructions.

"It is a coaching thing and they are saying, 'Fellas, did we practise this at training? No, we didn't, so why are we doing this?' It is not a matter of getting used to something because they were playing well in the last half of last year and they should be used to the coach by now.

"They should know what he wants, so why (is it) not transferring? The pressure of the game makes people do things that they do automatically instead of following the plan," Westaway said. "The board's view is always we are going to back the coach 100% until we have got a reason not to back him and we don't have a reason not to do that at this stage. We are not over the moon because we are three and three; we would like to be better than that. But the sky has not fallen in.

"There's enough happening for us to say, well, maybe we should have another look at how we are going about this and I am sure that is what Ross will do."

St Kilda kicked only two behinds in a scrappy first quarter when it went short and pressed numbers back. It lacked fast movement of the ball and went overboard on handballing.

Responsibility for the unattractive game was not entirely St Kilda's doing; Port Adelaide was also sloppy early. Conditions were not conducive to slick play, which made for errors and more contests and turnovers.

Lyon said: "I'm not sure exactly (why the side played as it did at the outset); we'll review it and learn from it, but it hurts. It hurts really on the scoreboard, hurts the group and hurts everyone involved with the club. I asked the question in the box, 'Do we train that?' And the response is, 'No'. Then I asked the players, 'Do we train that?' and they say, 'No'.

"Sometimes the pressure of games and the pressure of the opposition make you do funny things, which we want to eradicate if we're going to be a top team."