St Kilda coach Ross Lyon is remaining tight-lipped on what forced ruckman Michael Gardiner from the field in Saturday's drawn AFL grand final.

Gardiner limped from the field about 27 minutes into the second term of the thriller against Collingwood and did not return for the rest of the match.

One of the big stories over the next seven days will be whether Gardiner, their No.1 ruckman, can recover in time for next Saturday's replay.

His absence could have been disastrous for the Saints, given their shock decision to leave out back-up ruckman Ben McEvoy.

But the Saints were able to cope, with key forward Justin Koschitzke and tall defender Jason Blake taking up the slack.

Asked about the leg injury that forced Gardiner off, Lyon said "mental" and then laughed as he ended his media conference.

Earlier in the conference, Lyon was asked who might be in doubt for the replay.

"Michael Gardiner could have come back on, but unless he could sprint I didn't want to know about him," Lyon said.

"We made the right call there - so if he can't sprint, he's one, clearly.

"But the rest, he was the only one for the day."

McEvoy and Rhys Stanley, who were emergencies, are obvious candidates to come in if Gardiner does not recover.

Nick Dal Santo hurt his hamstring last weekend, but played out the game after a slow start that worried his coach.

"I was thinking `was that the right call?', and then he felt really good in the end," Lyon said.

"Once he let himself go, he got to work - they (Gardiner and Dal Santo) are the obvious ones."

Lyon added that the burst pipe in the change rooms meant it was tough to know soon after the match whether there were any other players who were injured.

"Have their (Collingwood's) rooms been flooded? Yeah? So that's a relief," Lyon joked.

"We're both in other rooms without much ice (packs), we're a bit behind on the feedback systems and medical and physio.

"I can't give a real pertinent or accurate response."

The Saints dropped McEvoy so they could have an extra running player, with tough defender Steven Baker taking his place.

"Obviously the combination of Koschitzke and Blake worked really well and the extra runner proved beneficial to us," Lyon said.

"Baker stood up really well."

Lyon said the dying moments of the match were "chaotic" in the coach's box.

He added their second quarter was "horrible" as only Collingwood's inaccuracy stopped them taking a decisive lead.

"Clearly, we made a horrible mess in the second quarter or everything we did, but I thought our first quarter was really good," Lyon said.

"Our third and fourth were pretty good, but what players will take away is every little thing counts.

"Our skill errors when I thought we had momentum late were horrible and that invited them back in.

"But they (Collingwood) would walk away saying `we had a lot of entries and we had the game'."

The Saints have been renowned this year for their toughness and Lyon backed them to bounce back for the replay.

"We just hung on in the second (term), but that's been our trademark, (as well as) the ability to be mentally tough and regroup," he said.

"So our mental toughness stands us in pretty good stead, to go forward."

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