St Kilda’s players are confident they can return to their best form for the clash against North, despite three consecutive losses.

The Saints fell to Adelaide by 57 points at Adelaide Oval last week, and are now in 12th position on the AFL ladder with five wins from 11 games.

Friday night’s match now looms as season-defining.

“I don’t think we’ve lost belief. The start of the year just shows what kind of footy we can play,” midfielder Koby Stevens said.

“If we flick that switch this weekend we’re going to be a very hard team to play against.

“Obviously it’s a big game; it’s another opportunity to get back on the winner's list. Our last good win on a Friday night against GWS was a positive.

“Last week against Adelaide we didn’t play the way we wanted to play, hopefully we can get back on the front foot this week.”

Fellow on-baller Seb Ross said the Saints had “gone off the boil a little bit” in recent weeks.

“We’ve just gone away from playing the footy we played earlier in the year; we’ve lost playing with dare a little bit; we’ve lost our attacking game style, so that’s what we’ll be looking to get back to this week,” he told SEN.

The Saints are hoping to get back Nick Riewoldt to take on North, with the key-forward missing since Round 9 due to bruising in his knee.

“I think it’s going to be a pretty important training session today for ‘Roo’. He’s missed the two games plus the bye, so we’ll see how he’s looking today; hopefully he can get up for Friday night,” Ross added.

Riewoldt finished with 16 disposals, eight marks and two goals in the sides' 2016 clash, and has kicked 17 goals in eight games this season.