St Kilda coach Ross Lyon says the AFL's unbeaten pacesetter must be prepared to suffer the odd suspension if they continue to be hard and aggressive on the field.

The Saints' clean disciplinary record in 2009 was blotted on Tuesday when ruckman Michael Gardiner accepted a one-game suspension for striking Melbourne's Mark Jamar, which will keep him out of Saturday's clash against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium.

Lyon was disappointed to lose a player who has turned his career around at the Saints from his troubled days at West Coast, but felt Gardiner's forearm to Jamar's head was worse than it looked.

Just as Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson was content with an uncompromising style in 2008 despite run-ins with the judiciary, Lyon said the Saints had to ready themselves for an occasional worry if they maintained the same intensity from the first 10 rounds.

"He'll learn from it and move on," Lyon said of Gardiner.

"But we're playing pretty hard football and we'll cross that line a few times and we'll have to deal with that.

"It's unrealistic to expect at an AFL club you're going to go through without an indiscretion or an error in judgement.

"We value having our personnel on the park, but if you're competing and you're going hard and you're in that state of mind, you'll make some decisions that sometimes bend the rules too far."

Besides finding a replacement for Gardiner, the Saints must also monitor the fitness of defender Sam Gilbert, who hurt an ankle on Saturday night, and small forward Stephen Milne, who missed the game with knee soreness.

But Lyon said the Saints were more confident than not that the pair would play the Kangaroos, when the Saints seek a club record 11th win in succession.

Another victory would better the streak the Saints produced in 2004, but Lyon said it was irrelevant before the midway point of the season.

"What's the lesson for 11 in a row or 10 in a row, that it counts for nothing in home and away (season)," he said.

"That's the lesson if you want to look back and look at `04.

"This is a different group, it's five years on.

"(Amid) home and away, (Collingwood coach) Mick Malthouse has been quoted `It's a marathon', and at this stage we still haven't won enough games to guarantee a finals appearance.

"So our aim is to continue to improve and win."

Lyon said he had not detected a wane in the Saints' motivation to continue winning, and felt there was still areas to work on.

"Clearly we're doing some things well - our team defence and our stoppage work is really good - but we turned the ball over a little bit (against the Demons) and weren't accurate in front of goal," he said.

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