St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt has rejected teammate Jason Gram's concern that the Saints might still be brooding over their losses in the past two AFL grand finals.

St Kilda will go into Sunday's game against Essendon after a one-point loss to Geelong and a draw with Richmond, prompting Gram to question the side's hunger.

"We have missed out on two premierships and a few of the boys are thinking about that - we have to move on," Gram said on the weekend.

Riewoldt demurred, claiming the club was determined to be among the pacesetters again this season.

"That's probably the way Grammy's reading it," Riewoldt said on Tuesday. "I think at all times players go through peaks and troughs.

"If you look at the start of the season people could throw up those questions based on the last couple of years - is the hunger still there? Is the desire still there?

"But if you'd been a fly on the wall around the club over the pre-season and seen the way the players have approached it and attacked their training I don't think you'd be left in any doubt as to what this group wants to achieve.

"I think if you look purely at the results from the first two games you'd maybe question it, but we've been in a winning position twice.

"If it had have been a point either way we would have been sitting here (on) eight points."

Riewoldt, who plays his 200th game on Sunday against Essendon, is confident the Saints will be able to keep pace with Collingwood, Hawthorn and Geelong.

"We're still a very strong team, we're capable of beating anyone really if we provide four quarters of consistent football," he said.

"So far we've been patchy and you can't expect to win too many games of football if you're inconsistent within games.

"We know if we play the way that we've trained that we're going to be competitive."

Riewoldt, 28, added when he first started as a player at St Kilda in 2001, 200 games seemed beyond him.

"Really it just highlights how quickly it goes," he said.

"You start out and there are 200-game players around the club, you think you've got to be playing for an eternity to achieve something like that.

"But it's gone so quickly. It's only a number but it's something that when I first started out I never thought possible."

Meanwhile, he said Lenny Hayes was in good spirits and already looking forward to 2012 after his season-ending knee injury.

"It's one of those things that footy throws up but footballers are pretty resilient, particularly ones who have been able to play for so long," Riewoldt said.

"He's got very strong character and I've got full confidence in Lenny and his ability to get through this and he'll be back with the jersey on next year, I'm sure.

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