Each loss that St Kilda suffers this AFL season means the spotlight is shone again on the gaping black hole through the middle of their playing list.

Between their lauded group of veterans and the youngsters they are trying to bring through as quickly as possible, there is precious little for the rebuilding club.

Their lack of key defenders and shallow midfield depth was exposed on Sunday night when Richmond scored a regulation 64-point win.

Back in March, coach Scott Watters was already talking about the Saints’ need to be major players in trades and free agency recruiting once this season ended.

Watters undoubtedly saw the signs as early as late 2011, when he was weighing up whether he should go for the St Kilda post.

He has spoken about it repeatedly over the past few weeks.

But just because the problem is obvious doesn’t make the resulting pain any easier for St Kilda to bear.

“While we’re very disappointed and our players are disappointed … 95 per cent of those players will be getting on a plane next week and going to Perth (to play Fremantle),” Watters said after the Richmond loss.

“They’ll get my support to go up and have another crack – that’s where we’re at.

“There will be some losses like this potentially along the way.

“But I will play Brodie Murdoch next week and I will play Jack Newnes next week, Seb Ross, etc.

“They have to go through it.”

It is much the same problem that confronted Matthew Knights in 2008 when he took over as Essendon coach.

The Bombers had tried, unsuccessfully, to prise open a premiership window that had shut several years earlier.

Essendon needed several years to fill the gap and the pressure to fast-track the team’s development led directly to their ongoing anti-doping investigation crisis.

In St Kilda’s case, the cause and effect are obvious.

They were on the verge of a premiership and recruited accordingly, trying to top up the list rather than look long term.

After their narrow 2009 grand final loss to Geelong, the Saints recruited eight players – among them, the disastrous risk they took with trading for former Essendon midfielder Andrew Lovett.

None of those players is now at the club. Lovett never played a game.

The following season, they drew the grand final with Collingwood and were belted in the replay. They were so close.

But a year later, less than a month before his dramatic departure to Fremantle, coach Ross Lyon said at a post-game media conference that the core group of Saints players deserved praise for serving the club so well.

Their window had slammed shut, too.

How well the Saints recruit later this year and beyond will have a massive bearing on how long before it opens again.