ST KILDA half-forward Eli Templeton faces an extended spell on the sidelines after breaking his left arm in the Saints' Anzac Day loss to the Brisbane Lions at Wellington's Westpac Stadium.
Templeton was substituted in the first half and taken to hospital after injuring himself tackling Lions midfielder Sam Mayes, with the injury confirmed post-match.
"He won't come home with the team . . . it looks like it's going to be Monday he'll come back and have surgery back in Melbourne," coach Alan Richardson said.
"On the back of 'Wrighty' (Nathan Wright) breaking his leg a couple of weeks ago we've lost a couple of our young guys, and it's important we get some footy into those young blokes early in their career, so it's disappointing.
"Another player will get an opportunity. It sounds a little bit insensitive but, unfortunately, that's footy.
"He's been really good for us, Eli, so it's disappointing to lose him."
Templeton had played every game for the Saints this season after being elevated from the rookie list, providing spark and quality ball use across half-forward.
He was replaced by substitute Shane Savage on Friday night as the Saints fell 32 points behind before a strong second-half fight back.
Richardson praised his senior players, with Leigh Montagna (37 possessions) winning the Anzac Medal as best on ground, but said his team had been "out-pressured" by the Lions.
"Certainly the first half was really disappointing. It was a really significant day obviously, for many reasons," he said.
"New Zealand, we want to make it our second home, despite only the one game. And it's important to us as a club to represent the industry and pay respect to Anzac Day.
"[Because of] all those motivating factors I was convinced the boys would be up and going, so we let ourselves down. There's no doubt about that."
After kicking seven of the last 10 goals, Richardson said it was a potential win that got away "because we were so poor early".
He said the team embraced a tough clash against Hawthorn at the MCG next Saturday.
"We'll have (Luke) Dunstan on (Sam) Mitchell at some stage; we'll potentially have (Jack) Billings playing on a quality player," the coach said.
"We'll obviously have some real experience out there but we'll have some young players matched up to some real quality all over the park.
"These younger defenders for us are going to get opportunities against really good forwards, and that's exciting.
"So we embrace the fact that we play some really strong teams in the next period and we look forward to those challenges … to challenge our leaders to be strong in terms of setting the example and our young blokes to play their role."
