ST KILDA once owned an enviable list. But at the halfway mark of 2008, and the mid-point of Ross Lyon's three-year contract, it's clear that Lyon's list will struggle to play finals, much less bring home the premiership that seemed probable in 2004.

The top seven teams are demonstrably superior to the Saints, and North is better performed to this stage.

The premiership window has slammed on Lyon's fingers.

The scales have fallen from the eyes of a media blinded by the injury alibi. It is now recognised the tide was going out on St Kilda in 2006, when Grant Thomas was sacked. Half of the 2004 and 2005 team is gone, counting Fraser Gehrig. Robert Harvey, sadly, will bow out of the game without the one medal that kept those old legs pumping.

Arguments can be mounted about whether the game plan suits the personnel and so forth. None of the debate ought obscure the reality that St Kilda's moment has passed, and that the club shouldn't waste time in mid-table delusion, wondering whether a fit Matt Maguire would make all the difference. They're more than one player short.

The two defeats against the Bulldogs this year have been bellwether matches for the Saints, who kicked sand in the Dogs' collective face two years ago. The Doggies have serious leg speed and foot skills, and a depth of runners that St Kilda can't compete with.

If this sounds depressing for the stoic fans of the competition's least successful club, the window can be prised open within a few years with canny list management; the St Kilda souffle can rise twice, on the back of a capable core group of players in their mid-20s.

The Saints must already know they're not up to the mark, that the tide has gone out and they've been left with pants around their ankles.

Some prescriptions aren't a matter of much choice. As president Greg Westaway has indicated, Lyon will be given some time to right the ship. How much depends on what happens in the next 18 months.

The team must be freed from the bondage of expectation. While making the eight is possible (if unlikely), it seems as though the final spot is about the best-case scenario. With a premiership beyond them, the Saints must undertake not a full list reconstruction, but a refurbishment, building from the middle, as Collingwood did in 2006, when it offloaded Chris Tarrant.

The list lacks the vibrancy of the Bulldogs and Hawks because there is no layer of quick and capable 20 and 21-year-olds to support the Nick Riewoldt-Luke Ball-Nick Dal Santo generation.

Rather than chasing Daniel Kerr or another seasoned gun, the Saints must embrace the draft and find a raft of kids to support the strong mid-20s core of Riewoldt, Dal Santo, Ball, Brendon Goddard, Jason Gram, Sam Fisher, Leigh Montagna and Xavier Clarke.

Justin Koschitzke is a deliberate omission from that group, because the time has come for the Saints to investigate whether Kosi is tradeable. Star-crossed and unfortunate with injury he might be, but Koschitzke is 25 and in his eighth season. He is understood to be paid close to $400,000 — the legacy of that 2005 streak when he garnered 11 Brownlow votes from four games, and the resultant higher offers from Carlton and the Swans. Kosi represents the Saints' best hope of purloining the extra first-round draft pick they need to spruce up the list.

Koschitzke and Riewoldt were supposed to be the pillars Lance Franklin and Jarryd Roughead have become for Hawthorn. Riewoldt has delivered plenty, but his goalkicking yips are a major issue, not dissimilar to Matthew Richardson's notorious difficulties.

Assuming Riewoldt's knee can withstand it — and it's possible it is hampering his kicking — Lyon should consider the Richo remedy of releasing Riewoldt to a roaming role in which he runs from end to end like a basketballer and uses that gigantic tank. Emancipated from responsibility for kicking the crunch goals for a few weeks, the skipper might relax and actually slot a few. He's a better kick than Richardson, whose accuracy and overall output improved once he was allowed to run around like a wild colt.

Riewoldt is St Kilda writ small: still good and capable of greatness, but battered, patched up and in need of rejuvenation.