ST KILDA'S season is well and truly alive, according to coach Ross Lyon, but limping into the finals would do little more than relieve pressure on himself and president Rod Butterss.

Lyon said the club needs confidence-building wins in the last three weeks of the home-and-away season to have any chance of making an impact in September — anything less and the Saints simply would be making up the numbers.

"You can limp into the finals, sneak in and everyone says St Kilda made the finals, but you want to go in with a purpose," he said. "If you just limp in, is there much point? I'm not sure there is.

"Obviously, it would take a bit of pressure off myself and the president and keep our supporters happy, but you want to be realistic."

The first hurdle is beating the resurgent Dockers at Telstra Dome on Saturday, which, Lyon says, will come down to a battle of the midfields. "They've got their runners back. (Byron) Schammer and (Brett) Peake were critical to them last year and they've missed the majority of the year through injury.

"And they've restructured their ruck department with (Daniel) Gilmore and (Robert) Warnock, who are averaging about 22 possessions each."

Lyon said caretaker coach Mark Harvey had opted successfully for more short kicking and handball over the past month, which allowed the Dockers to play to their strengths.

"There's more short kicks, more handballs, more marks inside 50, so they're probably bombing it less and using the ball better going inside their forward 50."

Having averaged 14 goals in the six games after the mid-season break, the Saints were held to nine goals against Sydney and 12 the week before in the draw against the Western Bulldogs.

But Lyon said his team was capable of kicking bigger scores, and getting overrun late in a game was a bigger concern for the coaching staff.

"Our last quarters are our big worry, we've lost a number of them. Is that tightening up, is that a fitness issue or is that the opposition? It's probably a combination of all three," he said.

"(But) we get an opportunity over the next three weeks to play good football and if you were to win three in a row, you would go in (to the finals) full of confidence and a chance to do something."

The big positive for St Kilda in the race to September is having close to a full list and several players gradually working themselves back into form and fitness.

"Clearly, Matt Maguire is still building," Lyon said. "What we've got to remember with him is he had five plates inserted (in his leg), a graduated pre-season (and) a 10-week stress fracture.

"If we think we've seen the best of Matt Maguire, clearly, we have not. And Lenny Hayes is still improving. Every week, we've seen improvement in Lenny. We're rapt to have player availability."

Lyon said Raphael Clarke, Shane Birss and Brett Voss would be considered this week.