St Kilda coach Alan Richardson believes his side will bounce back following a very disappointing 2018 season.

The Saints won only four games to finish in 16th place, a long way off the finals where they predicted to end up before the season.

โ€œI spoke about what our focus is going to be in terms of pre-season and why but I did need to touch again on last season,โ€ Richardson told SEN.

โ€œI felt the need, it was pretty brief, it was pretty frank and then it was, letโ€™s move on and what does move on look like.โ€

Richardson believes that the squad have a new-found determination following the arrival of the likes of Dan Hannebery and Dean Kent.

โ€œIโ€™m sensing from the group in terms of their attitude and the way theyโ€™re going about their training, the way theyโ€™ve gone about their time away from the footy club, there is a strong motivation to do something about last year,โ€ Richardson added.

โ€œI donโ€™t know whether the motivation is embarrassment, is proud, I donโ€™t really care. We know as a group we need to respond.โ€