Suddenly, things are looking grim for St Kilda. Like really grim.

In the six matches since Nick Riewoldt tore his right hamstring tendon from the bone, they have cobbled together brave but unconvincing victories over Collingwood (in that same game), Fremantle and the Western Bulldogs (a match they had no right to win), but lost three times - and that's three times in the past four weeks - to Port Adelaide, Carlton and Essendon on Sunday night.

In those six rounds, their total scores have read: 69, 108, 44, 49, 68 and 81. So clearly they are struggling for any sort of potency up forward. Against the Bombers at Etihad Stadium, Justin Koschitzke was serviceable at full-forward with three goals, Michael Gardiner as a ruckman-cum-forward also pinched three goals and Sam Fisher again did his bit at the 'foreign' end of the ground. But the structure is gone without Riewoldt, as is the predictability.

The best-drilled side in the AFL coming out of defence and through the midfield now doesn't know what to do when it goes forward. The Saints machine which rolls so effortlessly through the back two-thirds of the ground short-circuits when it gets near the 50-metre arc.

Now, for Ross Lyon's team, it's a matter of hanging on for the next 10 or 12 weeks, somehow winning more than half those matches and then hoping Riewoldt can return and make a meaningful contribution in the lead-up to the finals.

Essendon consigned the Saints to their third defeat of the year when ruckman Paddy Ryder threaded home a goal from the right forward pocket to seal the 12-point win, 14.9 (93) to 11.15 (81).

It was the Bombers, of course, who ended St Kilda's 19-match unbeaten run towards the end of last season.

While their year threatens to slide into mid-table mediocrity, the Saints are losing ground to both Collingwood and Geelong who continue to steam ahead, seemingly a level above their rivals. The Bulldogs, Fremantle, Carlton and the Saints themselves, holding on by their fingernails, sit on the next rung.

And it will take all of Lyon's undoubted talents to keep his team in the mix of contenders. To think it was only last August that the Saints were the hottest of hot favorites to take out the flag, and break the 43-year premiership drought about which they are so thoroughly sick of hearing. But now that prize seems as far away as ever, Riewoldt's injury a cruel continuation of the curse of the Saint.

It is fitting then that the Cats and Magpies meet at the MCG on Friday night in what shapes as a genuine clinker of a contest, a game that might even justify the over-used blockbuster tag. Little wonder Channel Seven announced yesterday that they would televise the game live against the gate into Melbourne, as a ''special event'' from 7.30pm. Country affiliate Prime will follow the move.

The Saints, meanwhile, travel to Perth for a Sunday game against West Coast, which will attract a fraction of the interest generated by Geelong and Collingwood. For the time being, and until Riewoldt can return to the fray again, the Saints are not the main game - just a second-rung sideshow.