Richmond are confident the worst of their injury crisis is behind them and they will avoid having to call up VFL-listed top-up players despite suffering yet another blow in their 36-point loss to St Kilda.

Adem Yze's Tigers had 18 players on their injury list when Campbell Gray limped off with a hamstring strain in the second term of Sunday's 16.13 (109) to 11.7 (73) loss at Marvel Stadium.

Tiger Sam Cumming (corkie) limped off late and defender Nick Vlastuin (back) was proppy.

Yze was confident both were fine and expects to regain Mykelti Lefau, Kane McAuliffe and Jasper Alger for Friday's match against Essendon, then more players the following week.

Richmond (1-9), only had emergencies Lefau (managed), Samson Ryan and Kaleb Smith in reserve and no AFL players played VFL.

Yze was adamant Richmond would have a squad on Friday and hadn't identified potential VFL top-ups.

"We had to have those discussions (around not having 26 players) going into this game, really. We felt like this is the game that was more at risk with that," Yze said.

"So Livo (football performance boss Tim Livingstone) got on the phone to AFL just in case there was an outbreak with gastro because ... Kaleb Smith wasn't really realistically available for AFL.

"We just have to make sure we're doing the right thing and what the process around that is and so we know what that process is.

"We shouldn't have to go down that path based on the fact that we should have a few back next week."

Vlastuin could be cited for a fourth-quarter dangerous tackle on Ryan Byrnes but Yze played the incident down.

Ross Lyon's Saints moved to 5-5 ahead of travelling to second-placed Fremantle on Friday.

Saint Jack Higgins played through a knee issue but Lyon stressed he wasn't injured and quipped the forward merely had "carpet burn".

Hugo Garcia (25 disposals, 10 clearances, two goals) and Max Hall (25 disposals, seven clearances, two goals) were excellent for St Kilda off the back of Tom De Koning and Rowan Marshall's ruck dominance, while the ever-reliable Callum Wilkie had 25 touches.

"We jumped out the blocks really strongly, which we wanted to do, and played the way we wanted to play, so it was good," Lyon said.

"Overall, I was pleased with Garcia, our young midfield that we're building out; they got it done in there."

St Kilda shared goals around while Richmond's Liam Fawcett kicked three while Tom Lynch and debutant Noah Roberts-Thomson bagged two.

Yze lamented a "diabolical" first quarter when Richmond's contest "wasn't up to AFL standard" and St Kilda reeled off the first four goals.

Richmond gave a better account of themselves after quarter-time but never looked capable of running over the Saints.