St Kilda coach Ross Lyon believes his revived AFL side is on the right track, but staring at an approaching locomotive.

The Saints steamed within a win of the top eight with a 56-point trouncing of hapless Port Adelaide on Sunday at AAMI Stadium.

The comprehensive 17.7 (109) to 8.5 (53) victory banked St Kilda's fifth win from their past seven matches.

But Lyon refused to believe the Saints were rolling on finals-bound momentum.

"It beats losing ... naturally confidence comes out of actions," he said.

"We are delivering some actions and a game plan that allows us to get a result ... so it's just reaffirmation that we are doing the right thing and the players get some confidence.

"But we face a locomotive coming over from the west," he said, referring to St Kilda's home encounter with rising force West Coast on Saturday.

"If we are able to get over West Coast, I might be able to answer more confident that there is some momentum."

St Kilda's blitz of a sloppy Port, who remain stuck with just two wins this season, began before the opening bounce.

Power defender Jackson Trengove struck Nick Riewoldt high, gifting the Saint skipper a free kick and goal.

Riewoldt proceeded to kick four goals as his form surge continued, while Trengove's day went from bad to worse: he burst a blood vessel in his right wrist in the final minutes.

Trengove's indiscretion set the tone for a sometimes spiteful affair, with a third term melee involving 10 players to attract match review panel attention.

Saint David Armitage's head high bump on Power tagger Matt Thomas in the last quarter will also be scrutinised, but coach Lyon was in no doubt which side was the overall aggressor.

"The first bounce, an undisciplined act off the ball by the opponent - which probably continued a fair bit of the day to be honest," Lyon said.

"We took full toll of that and made them pay and that was a critical element, we kept the focus on the ball."

Port coach Matthew Primus rejected claims of ill discipline, more concerned with his side's glacier slow ball movement and alarming lack of intensity.

"Too often we wanted to play slow," Primus said.

"St Kilda forced us to do that but we just went into our shells with our ball movement."

Riewoldt's four goal haul was matched by his attacking colleague Ryan Gamble while smooth moving Saint Nick Dal Santo was best afield, gathering 36 possessions and kicking two goals.

His midfield colleagues Jack Stevens (26 disposals) and Brendan Goddard (27 touches) were dominant but, in contrast, Port had few winners other than utility Hamish Hartlett, who was a standout with 32 possessions.

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