Are the Saints getting tired?
That is the key question that arises out of the Saints first loss for the season on Sunday, a six loss to Sydney at the SCG.
The defeat ended a club record 10-match winning streak to start the season, a streak that unofficially sat at 14 if you include the clubs unbeaten Wizard Cup pre-season campaign.
But have the Saints peaked too early and are they starting to starting to feel the effects of what has already been a long campaign?
St Kilda coach Grant Thomas hinted as much when he cancelled training last Wednesday, just minutes before it was about to start, after revealing an internal scoring system - which measures seven areas of the players mental and physical well-being showed the players were feeling below-par.
Instead he took his team off to an afternoon at the movies but if he hoped this would freshen up his players, he was sadly mistaken based on his teams showing against the Swans.
Just 11 goals for the game, none from either Fraser Gehrig or Steven Milne, and not one player being able to manage 20 possessions for the game told a sorry tale for a team that had won its past two games by more than 100 points.
The small ground, which congested the space for the Saints powerful forward line to work in, was probably also a contributing factor while Barry Hall and Matthew Nicks were able to expose the Saints previously impenetrable defence for the first time this season.
But while the Saints get the ideal chance to bounce back straight away next week against the struggling Bulldogs at the MCG, the weekend setback will certainly add a spring in the step of the players at Essendon and Brisbane the two clubs leading the chasing pack behind the Saints as they realise Grant Thomas team is beatable after all.