St Kilda's charge towards September received a major boost with a gutsy win over Brisbane on Saturday and skipper Nick Riewoldt coming through his first AFL match in three months unscathed.

The Saints were without late withdrawals Brendon Goddard and Justin Koschitzke and did it tough before wearing down the Lions 11.13 (79) to 10.5 (65) at the Gabba.

St Kilda had trailed by 16 points at the long break after only kicking three majors in the first half, with the home side threatening to pull off a major upset and complete form reversal.

But the Saints steadily got on top to re-join Geelong atop the AFL ladder.

Riewoldt started on the interchange bench and was eased into his first match since round three because of a major hamstring injury.

The Lions made sure there were no easy possessions for the returning superstar, with Daniel Merrett, Mitch Clark and Joel Patfull using every opportunity to buffet, bump and bustle the Saints' key forward throughout the night.

By game's end the Saints skipper was again sitting on the bench, but in the meantime he had kicked an important final quarter goal from 45m and finished with 13 possessions and six marks.

Without Riewoldt playing a major role, it was left to hard-running midfielders Leigh Montagna, Nick Dal Santo and Farren Ray to bring St Kilda back into the game.

Also playing their part was Saints defender James Gwilt, who was redeployed to attack with effect in the second half.

Brisbane full forward Brendan Fevola brought his best and worst form to the game, kicking four goals despite dropping three regulation chest marks, hitting the post from 15m and putting another hurried kick out on the full.

After St Kilda had led by a couple of goals midway through the first term, they failed to add another goal before the main break as the Lions kicked five unanswered majors across the first and second quarters to give hope of a possible upset, but it was not to be.

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon said Riewoldt suffered from cramps late in the match and while he was benched for about a quarter of the game time he could easily have spent another 15 minutes on the field.

"It's safe to assume there would have been some butterflies," Lyon said.

"He cramped late, but he played a lot of minutes.

"He played over 80 minutes and it's great for football, we love to have great players on the paddock.

"As a coach he clearly makes us a better team but I thought we kicked to him way too often early.

Lions coach Michael Voss has often questioned the commitment of his players in recent months, but he had few questions about his players endeavour against the Saints, albeit the side's 10th loss in 11 games.

"It was a much better standard for us," Voss said.

"That display was much closer to what we are after.

"Certainly, the first half. What we were trying to execute was done very, very well.

"We probably fell away a bit in the fourth quarter.

A three-quarter time melee, involving every player, is likely to be closely scrutinised with a number of players facing fines for wrestling.

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