Ross Lyon will enjoy the next phone chat with his old boss after St Kilda beat Sydney by 26 points in their AFL match at Telstra Dome.

Lyon has regularly kept in touch with Sydney coach Paul Roos since leaving his assistant role at the Swans to take over at the Saints, who won 15.7 (97) to 11.5 (71).

It was the first time Lyon had coached against his old club.

But St Kilda's shocking run with injuries continued, utility Brendon Goddard helped from the field in the first quarter with a knee injury.

Lyon confirmed Goddard suffered the dreaded "ACL" (anterior cruciate ligament) injury in the innocuous-looking incident when he took on three opponents and twisted his knee.

"It looks like 12 months, ACL," Lyon said, adding the priority was to support Goddard and help him return to the game.

"You come into a club and you don't know what people stand for, you might make some judgments from afar," Lyon said.

"But Brendon Goddard, he's full of character and a hard worker - he's one of the real young leaders around the club.

"So I feel for him and I feel for St Kilda, but that happens in league footy.

"As a strong club, our job is to support him and make sure he gets back to playing the football that he was playing early tonight."

The Saints improved to four wins and three losses, while the out-of-sorts Swans are now 3-4.

Lyon played down the angle of himself and Roos, making it clear he was fed up with the topic.

"There's no increased joy and the 'apprentice-master' got boring, repetitive - I'd be disappointed if it was reported like that," he said.

But the Saints coach was pleased an added emphasis on tackling was bearing fruit.

"The last two weeks we've focussed on tackling and again I think we delivered that - our tackling improved as the game went on," he said.

Saints co-captain Nick Riewoldt was best afield with 14 marks, 21 possessions and a goal, while fellow key forward Fraser Gehrig kicked four goals.

After trailing by a goal at half-time, the Swans levelled the scores early in the third term as the pace of the game lifted noticeably.

But the Saints then went into overdrive, kicking the last four goals of the term to lead by 25 at the last change.

Nick Davis put through the first goal of the last term to give the Swans a slight chance, before St Kilda scored three of the next four majors to seal the win.

Roos paid credit to Lyon, but was unsure whether his "inside knowledge" of the Swans played a part in the result.

"If it wasn't Ross (coaching) and they played the same way, they'd still win - it's hard for me to answer how much the inside knowledge (affected tonight)," he said.

Roos said poor ball use constantly hurt the Swans, who clearly have several key players well short of their best form.

"We've probably got a few too many blokes who are out of form at the moment, so to get behind, we're just not in good-enough form to get back in front again," he said.

"Turnovers are just absolutely critical, I think we saw tonight, the ball use in games like that, where it's going to be close, is just going to kill you.

"It was as poorly as I've seen us use the footy, apart from probably the start of the year, the first or second round."

But he made it clear he will stick with the nucleus of the team as the Swans try to recover from another slow start to a season.

"The group has been so good for so long....at some point, you've got to back that group and make sure we give them the same opportunity they've given the footy club in terms of winning premierships and playing in grand finals," he said.

Roos again showed in the post-match media conference that a loss does not dent his sense of humour.

A day after the Swans received a suspended $2500 fine for his comments on umpiring last weekend, Roos was asked about the free-kick count - 28-15 in St Kilda's favour.

Roos had a wry smile on his face as he also shot a long, filthy look at an AFL official standing in the corner of the room.

Suffice to say, Roos did not answer the question.

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