Coach Alan Richardson said the Western Bulldogs would pose another big challenge to the Saints.

"The Dogs are in really good form, they're playing really aggressive footy, both in the way they defend and their testing terms going the other way, they're playing with real confidence," he said.

St Kilda played urgent, high-energy football at the weekend, Richardson said, but could not hold on in the last quarter, going down to the Bombers by two points.

It was "incredibly disappointing" to lose to Essendon after in the hard fought battle, he said, but he was reasonably pleased with how the team performed.

Riewoldt and Montagna were both ready to return for the Bulldogs clash, Richardson said.

The return of the top players would call into question the place of Tom Hickey in the team, despite a solid performance against the Bombers.

"It will be a challenge in match committee, absolutely, and we'd rather have those problems than trying to find people to play [up front]," Richardson said.

"We thought Tom was good ... there's no doubt with [Riewoldt] potentially coming back into the team it'll put a bit of pressure on someone in the front half , but Hickey couldn't have done much more."