St Kilda legend Nick Riewoldt believes some of the Saints’ big-name recruits have “full bellies” and lack “hunger for real success”, adding there was an issue with “integrity of selection”.

But Brownlow Medallist Gerard Healy believes St Kilda’s season is far from over, with the club now facing three “winnable” games over the next three rounds.

After reaching a semi-final in 2020, St Kilda’s 2021 finals hopes appear shaky, with Brett Ratten’s side sitting 12th on the ladder with a 4-6 record.

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Four of the Saints’ six losses this season have been by 50-plus points, hence their horror percentage of 72 after 10 rounds.

The club, in particular, has attracted fierce scrutiny in the wake of its most recent performance – a 111-point thumping at the hands of the red-hot Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium. The performance compelled St Kilda president Andrew Bassat to pen a letter to his side’s frustrated fans.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s On The Couch on Monday night, Riewoldt said he could tell five minutes into Saturday night’s game the Saints “weren‘t interested in the contest” and keen on treating it like “an athletics carnival”.

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Brownlow Medallist Gerard Healy said the St Kilda playing group was “playing on its own terms and only playing well with effort every second week”, adding: “That’s the starting point, why the effort is so pathetic every second week.” Triple premiership Lion Jonathan Brown suggested some of the players would “be lacking trust in each other”.

Riewoldt described the Saints as “a group that‘s not dog hungry”, singling out the players the club has traded in over recent years.

“I look at the list construct and I feel like St Kilda has gone down a path of acquiring talent. But when you go down any sort of recruiting angle, you‘re not just acquiring talent, you’re building a team and you’re building a culture,” Riewoldt told On The Couch.

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“So the players that have come there, whatever their motivation might be, they’ve either come for success and to build something – like a Tom Lynch going to Richmond – or you’ve come for opportunity – like Jack Steele went to St Kilda because he was probably 10th in line in the midfield at GWS – or you come for security. And there are some players there on a big whack that have got full bellies that have come from other clubs that have had success and I just think at the moment, the opportunity and security part of the motivation is far heavier than the hunger for real success.”

The Saints have been hit hard by injuries, with Rowan Marshall (foot), Jake Carlisle (back), Jade Gresham (Achilles), Dan Hannebery (calf), Zak Jones (quad) and Ben Paton (leg) all sidelined.

But Riewoldt said the injuries were “reasons, not excuses” for the Saints’ subpar start to 2021.

“The complete disregard or desire to defend on four occasions now and give defensive effort is there for us all to see,” he said. “The lack of accountability around that I think has now permeated through the group, to the point where there would be a lack of trust.”

Asked what he meant by lack of accountably, Riewoldt said: “Well, integrity of selection.”

Melbourne champion Garry Lyon said the Saints had set a bad precedent early in the season when they continued to name certain players in the senior team, such as prized recruit Bradley Hill, despite being out of form.

“Brett Ratten’s a great coach first, which is great. You love the coach when he’ll back you in,” Lyon told On The Couch. “Brad plays a couple of bad ones and then straight away says ‘we’re not dropping him’.

“So then you set some sort of a standard … and then the rest of them are going: ‘Well what‘s the consequences for me not being as good as I can be or not putting my body on the line or pushing myself here? Well my coach is going to back me in.’ That’s where I think they’ve backed themselves into a bit of a corner.

“Three weeks ago, it‘s ‘Brad Hill, we’re not dropping him’. Now it’s ‘we’re going to drop him’.”

Riewoldt said Ratten and the Saints’ match committed had “no choice” but to make a selection statement.

“He‘s backed his players in on the back of some terrible results already this season, but how many times can you go to the well? How many times can you ‘circle up’ and have the conversation about care and trust? You’ve got to take action,” he said.

“If you don‘t live up to the expectation that’s being set – and maybe that expectation hasn’t been high enough – but if you’re not living up to it, you’ve got to pay a price, because right now it looks like too many of the players are happy to be playing AFL football and they’re not in the real business of digging in and giving yourself an opportunity to contend, which is the path we all thought they were on.”

The Saints, who have the second-worst offence and second-worst defence in the AFL, face North Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide before their mid-season bye.

Healy said the Saints could get their season back on track over the next month – a notion Lyon disagreed with.

Gerard Healy: There’s a view that their season is shot. At the present time they’re 4-6. North Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, bye – they can win all those three games …

Garry Lyon: Gerard, you know how much I respect you …

GH: They could win all those three games …

GL: They cannot look any further than (Round) 11, Marvel.

GH: I understand that, but the season is not shot yet.

GL: Well it is …

GH: There is still something they can get out of this season

GL: If they don’t beat North Melbourne it is.

GH: If they don’t beat North Melbourne, I’ll come back and say the season is shot.

GL: They have no eyes for Sydney and no eyes for Adelaide and no eyes for a bye.

GH: No they aren’t, but we can look at this and say there are three winnable games there.

GL: How could you? How could you look at that and say that on the basis of what they’ve served up?

GH: Because that’s what the season is. We were doing this about the Giants at Round 2 – and they‘ve turned it around. I keep hearing ‘the season’s shot, the season’s shot’ – the season’s not bloody shot. North Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide – they can win those games.”

The Saints currently have the second-worst percentage in the competition. After the bye, they face the likes of Brisbane (at The Gabba), West Coast (Optus Stadium), Geelong (GMHBA Stadium), Richmond (MCG) and Port Adelaide in the back-half of their season.