The need to improve is the key lesson St Kilda learnt after beating Geelong in Sunday night's AFL blockbuster, according to captain Nick Riewoldt.

The Saints became the only undefeated team in the competition when they squeezed past the Cats to snare a six-point victory in the highly-hyped match.

While the result boosted the Saints to the top of the ladder, Riewoldt said the main focus will now be on how the side can get even better.

"It does give us a little bit of confidence in the way we play but I don't think either side played the perfect game by any stretch," Riewoldt said.

"There's still a lot of improvement in both sides.

"The conscious effort is going to be to improve. It's round 14 so we're two-thirds of the way through so there's still a long way to go.

"We've got eight weeks now before the finals now to concentrate on our opponent every week and make sure that we keep improving.

"The most pleasing aspect out of last night was (understanding) there are still a lot of areas where we can improve.

"It probably takes a game against one of the benchmarks like that to really find out those areas where you perhaps are a little bit weaker that you thought or even a bit stronger than you thought," he said.

The Saints travel to Perth next weekend for the game against West Coast at Subiaco on Sunday.

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