The run home ladder: Your team’s road ahead ranked from hardest to easiest

On face value, it would seem St Kilda have not improved this year, despite their headline-grabbing, off-season spending spree.

The Saints sit in 12th spot with a 5-7 win-loss record; the same return as at this time last season. However, they do boast a 10 per cent better percentage (102.3), healthier now than the ninth-placed Magpies and even the seventh-placed Western Bulldogs, who booted goals for fun last year.

They average more than seven points per game more this season (89.6) than last, and have fractionally tightened defensively, conceding an average of 87.6 points per game, despite key defender and co-captain Callum Wilkie needing more help. However, they are ranked 10th and ninth respectively in these categories, highlighting why they remain mid-table.

They have slipped slightly in scores-from-turnover differential, but importantly have vaulted from 10th to fourth in scores-from-clearances differential. Yet one win against a top-10 side – Greater Western Sydney – encapsulates their tale.

As one close league observer noted on Monday, for all the Blues’ troubles, they are only one win behind the Saints. So, too, are the rebuilding West Coast Eagles.

“I think the teams that are around the mark that St Kilda are at really find it hard to beat top four, top six teams. The next progression is you win one out of every three, and then you win one out of every two, and then you’re in the hunt.

“I think they’re miles from that. I never thought they were a flag contender this year, I’ve never had them in the top four to six teams. So, they are where they are right now because they’re just not quite there.”

The multimillion-dollar summer additions of Tom De Koning, Jack Silvagni, Sam Flanders and Liam Ryan, while splashing the cash on Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera to make him the highest-paid player in the competition, were meant to carry the Saints to September, perhaps even top six, but surely at least for one of the bottom rungs of a now top-10 finals system.

They were confronted with a bruising schedule to open the season, and injuries have not helped. Five interstate trips, including back-to-back games in Adelaide, were not ideal, although the Saints did beat Port Adelaide and were unlucky not to topple Adelaide.

They also faced the Gold Coast in the sapping Darwin humidity, and are now in the midst of a run of games against premiership favourites Fremantle, Hawthorn and Sydney.

They have missed the run and dare of Wanganeen-Milera (calf), who is in line to return this week, while Mitch Owens (calf) and Liam Ryan (calf) may also face the Swans. Fla