St Kilda midfielder Farren Ray doesn't want to sound too confident, but it's clear the Saints feel they are close to being back in town.

They have recovered from a winless opening four rounds to surge to 11th spot with five victories from their past seven AFL matches.

St Kilda now host West Coast at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night and Ray admits the Eagles' eight-point upset win over Geelong last Friday included some of best football he had seen in a long time.

The fifth-placed Eagles are on a five-game winning streak, with ruck duo Nic Naitanui and Dean Cox in All-Australian contention.

"It was an amazing game," Ray told AAP this week.

"They're really forming, I shouldn't say the ultimate team, they're a good team.

"They're solid down back, Shannon Hurn plays well down there.

"They're forming a good midfield and their forward-line is starting to look very daunting. Mark LeCras is an excellent player.

"Now they've got (Jack) Darling and (Josh) Kennedy up and firing, they are forming a very good side."

The Saints, however, have recovered from their early-season woes after being grand finalists in the past two years.

St Kilda's 56-point win over Port Adelaide last week at AAMI Stadium included four-goal hauls from Nick Riewoldt and Ryan Gamble and big games in midfield from Nick Dal Santo and 21-year-old Jack Steven.

"It has been a different year for St Kilda and us. I don't want to be too confident," said Ray, a veteran of 137 games with the Saints and the Western Bulldogs.

"We have sort of turned our season around in the last month or so.

"Confidence is a funny thing. It takes weeks and weeks to build confidence but you can lose it in one day.

"We've really found some inner confidence amongst the group in the last few weeks."

Ray added the Saints felt a lot better about taking on West Coast than they might have earlier this season.

"We're not sure how this week will go but we're pretty excited about it, whereas maybe in the first few rounds we may have not been that excited," he said.

"I think we're ready to challenge a team like West Coast who are clearly the favourites."

The Eagles will regain defender Beau Waters from an elbow injury.

Big forward Quinten Lynch is back after a one-game suspension and Andrew Gaff comes in to replace Tom Swift, Patrick McGinnity and star rover Daniel Kerr, who has hamstring soreness.

The Saints named an unchanged side with coach Ross Lyon nominating forward Tom Lynch and defender Zac Dawson as possible back-up ruckmen for Ben McEvoy.

Ruck/forward Justin Koschitzke was not called up despite being available following suspension.

Ray says McEvoy will need all the help he can get.

"Cox and Naitanui are really forming the ultimate ruck tandem in the AFL," Ray said.

"You've got to spread from the stoppage and everyone around it has got to get involved - everyone has got to be switched on."

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