ST KILDA is "up for the battle" for Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera's future as their breakout star underlines his reputation as the most in-demand man in football.

A week on from his last-gasp matchwinning heroics in the Saints' record-breaking comeback win against Melbourne, Wanganeen-Milera was outstanding again in the Saints' thrilling nine-point victory over North Melbourne on Sunday.

SAINTS v KANGAROOS Full match coverage and stats

The uncontracted South Australian gun, who the Saints are desperate to re-sign amid a hot chase from Port Adelaide and Adelaide, had 20 disposals, 11 contested possessions, six clearances and five score involvements in the first half alone and finished with 36 touches, nine clearances and nine score involvements.

"For him, it's exciting, for his family, for us," St Kilda coach Ross Lyon said. 

"We've got a battle on our hands but we're up for the battle."

St Kilda fans at Marvel Stadium cheered every dazzling Wanganeen-Milera possession, gave him a standing ovation every time he ran to the bench and held up signs reading 'We love you Nas'.

"If it's me, I've got no heart, right, so it doesn't affect (me), but hopefully Nas has got a heart, and hopefully it has an effect," Lyon said.

"I get the passion. We love the passion.

"It's great to be talking, great to have a player like this that's out of contract that we're excited about, the comp's excited about, and good luck to him, and good luck to us.

"I'm sure there'll be an answer at some point."

Wanganeen-Milera has kept his cards close to his chest and wouldn't commit to a timeline on his decision, saying he will let his footy do the talking.

"I was sorting that out with the club and my manager but just sort of going about my business playing footy at the moment. So that'll come in due time," he told Fox Footy.

Meanwhile, North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson has once again defended the Kangaroos' slow rebuild.

The Roos have managed just four wins in their third season under the four-time premiership coach, and have lost their past six games.

"It's a tough grind," Clarkson said. "We're making progress but we'd like the progress to be more in terms of wins but we're not quite there at the moment.

"But the mood and morale is good within the four walls of the footy club, but it just becomes the hysteria of expectation outside.

"It's a tough caper, but we've known all along to take sides from the bottom of the ladder to the top is really, really hard work but there just seems to be a lot of people who think they can do it better and they've never even tried it."

Clarkson lamented the Roos' inability to get the ball into their attack in the close loss, with the Saints smashing them in the inside-50 count 54-38.

"Our endeavour was really strong, but the bottom line is we just couldn’t get it inside 50 enough," he said.

"It was a single figure margin that split the two sides at the end of the game but it was a double-figure margin in the inside-50 differential.

"We need to work out a way we can get the ball inside 50 and hold it in there a bit more often.

"We're not too bad at converting the chances once we get it in there but we just need to get a greater volume of them."

North's sixth straight defeat was exacerbated by Paul Curtis' report for striking Angus Hastie behind play on the quarter-time siren, while on his return from a knee injury, Nick Larkey appeared to re-injure himself in the fourth-quarter after Saints defender Anthony Caminiti clumsily fell on top of him following an aerial contest.

"Good sign that he was able to get back out there, but not such a good sign that he wasn't protected in the first instance," Clarkson said.