Sydney coach John Longmire wasn't fazed or fussed by another bout of his teams goalkicking yips and celebrated the return of their trademark pressure in a vital 15-point victory over fellow AFL finals aspirants St Kilda at ANZ Stadium on Sunday.

The 10.23 (83) 10. 8 (68) win pulled Sydney level with the Saints and Essendon on 42 points, leaving them sandwiched between the two Melbourne clubs in seventh spot, though the Bombers have played one game more than the other two.

The result pushed Sydney six points clear of North Melbourne and Fremantle, the only teams outside the eight with realistic finals hopes.

St Kilda suffered two significant pre-match losses, with key forward Justin Koschitzke and fullback Zac Dawson withdrawing after each suffered a gastro attack on Saturday.

Saints coach Ross Lyon refused to use that as an excuse, stressing his midfield was "obliterated" and "annihilated".

Sydney ruckman Shane Mumford plied up a colossal hitout tally of 54, while Rhyce Shaw Daniel Hannebery and Jarrad McVeigh all tallied more than 25 touches.

St Kilda led by margins of ten at the first two breaks and by seven at the final change.

Sydney created far more scoring opportunities, but their notoriously wayward goal kicking made it a stressful afternoon for their supporters and allowed Saints to lead for much of a predictably hard fought contest.

The Swans, who had kicked more goals than behinds in just six of their previous 19 games, notched ten straight minor scores after Rhyce Shaw kicked the opening goal of the game.

Sydney finally found their range, with co-captain Adam Goodes, Jesse White and Matt Spangher each kicking a goal in the first five minutes of the final term.

While admitting to frustration at the many misses which include three posters and some wayward kicking, Longmire emphasised the game was all about rediscovering the intensity that went missing against Richmond last week rather than the goalkicking.

"There wasn't any point in getting too frustrated about it in terms of regarding talking to the players, even though it would have been better if we had kicked straight," Longmire told reporters.

"But the important thing from my point of view and the players point of view was just our intensity and that's what we brought.

"We do extra goalkicking sessions, we do a lot of extra work on all of our other skills, and we will continue to do that, and we need to do it."

The Saints were far more clinical early on, even though classy forwards Nick Riewoldt and Stephen Milne were well held by Ted Richards and Nick Smith respectively.

Riewoldt and David Armitage each kicked two goals for the Saints, with Lyon adamant the former wasn't injured.

"I thought our forwards given some opportunities looked dangerous," Lyon said.

"I thought our backs hung on and then the dam wall broke."

Former Swan Sean Dempster was stretchered off close to the end with concussion and Jason Blake suffered a corked leg.

Saints had Dean Polo reported for an alleged last quarter trip of Goodes, who was held by Sam Fisher till the last term.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP