St Kilda coach Alan Richardson has dead-batted opportunities to put a positive spin on his side’s performances in 2018, describing his team’s season as “disappointing”.

After missing the 2017 finals by one game and 2016 by percentage, the Saints are wallowing in 15th place this year with a 3-11-1 record.

The retirements last year of stalwarts Nick Riewoldt, Leigh Montagna and Sean Dempster robbed St Kilda of a combined 845 games in experience and while some experts predicted the Saints to struggle, Richardson expected better.

“We’ve had a disappointing year,” he said following Saturday’s comprehensive 36-point defeat against Port Adelaide.

“With ‘Joey’ (Montagna), ‘Shinner’ (Dempster) and ‘Rooey’ (Riewoldt) moving on, there were opportunities for others to step up as players and leaders.

“But we haven’t been anywhere near as consistent with our performances as we would have liked.”

St Kilda’s clash with the Power wasn’t one for the ages – for either team – but Richardson did draw some positives, notably the performances of David Armitage (30 disposals, three goals), who continued his mid-season renaissance after spending some time in the VFL, and tagger Jack Steele who blanketed Ollie Wines.

“I thought David Armitage played a really strong game for us,” Richardson said.

“His last two games have been really positive.

“Steele did a really good job – we all rate Wines really highly.

“He (Steele) has done that for us for a couple of weeks and been able to nullify the opposition’s best mid.

“The Saints will be looking to bounce back this Friday night against Carlton at Etihad Stadium where key defender Jake Carlisle is tipped to return from a nasty punctured lung.

“We’re optimistic that he’ll play,” Richardson said.

“He’ll need to train and we’ll see how he goes. From all reports he’s feeling fine and should be right.”