Sunday's upset win over Hawthorn gave the Saints three wins from their opening month, in a season where they were tipped to flounder in the bottom four.

But acting captain Seb Ross said it remains far too early to reassess and look any further ahead than the Easter Saturday clash with Melbourne.

"I don't think we're in a position to look ahead at all," he said.

"We're pretty fortunate we have a six-day break, so we can bank that win and look forward to playing Melbourne."

St Kilda prevailed on in a hard-fought, brutal clash with the Hawks as both sides added to their lengthy injury lists.

For the Saints, Ross stepped in as captain when Jarryn Geary was a late withdrawal because of illness and he was best afield with 39 possessions.

Daniel McKenzie was concussed during the game.

The Saints fell four goals behind in the third quarter and a year ago the Hawks would have swamped them.

But St Kilda's effort never wilted and Hawthorn did not kick another goal.

Ross attributes their impressive opening month to several factors, including the arrival of new assistant coaches Brett Ratten and Brendon Lade.

"We were able to get some real clarity within our pre-season with a few new coaches coming in," he said.

"We put some game plans in and some things we wanted to put in place.

"As long as we bring the effort, those sorts of things seem to be working for us."

Post-match, coach Alan Richardson pointed to their improved fitness.

"That's helped massively; the guys who are usually at the top of the running drills, they're still at the top," Ross said.

"But we got a more significant improvement from the guys underneath.

"The range in our 3km time trials was a lot closer - we had a lot more guys running 10-11 minutes."

The Saints remain without several key players who have suffered long-term injuries, including Dylan Roberton, Jake Carlisle and Dan Hannebery, but Ross said they have worked around their absence.

"While we'd love to have those guys in, the reality is those guys weren't there in the main group for the majority of the pre-season," he said.

Australian Associated Press