ST KILDA coach Alan Richardson was again left to rue costly turnovers and inaccuracy in front of goal after the Saints suffered their fourth loss of the season in Launceston on Saturday night.

As has been the theme of their 2018 campaign, the Saints gave up possession far too easily and too often in their 35-point loss to Hawthorn in difficult conditions at the University of Tasmania Stadium.

HAWKS KICK AWAY: Full match coverage and stats

Asked post-match whether it's a difference in class, a frustrated St Kilda coach said: "I can imagine you could say that after watching tonight. And that's probably been a bit of a pattern for us, we've had to work pretty hard.

"Some of our errors coming out of defence, you wouldn't expect at this level. But we're sub-par in that area, there's no doubt about that.

"Some of our entries at times … you wouldn't want to be a forward in front of the ball."

Once again, a number of St Kilda's senior players were poor by both hand and foot.

Jack Billings had 15 disposals at a paltry 40 per cent disposal efficiency, Luke Dunstan (19 touches) went at 47.4 per cent, while Jade Gresham’s 12 possessions were executed at 58.3 per cent.

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Heading into the clash, the Saints were the second-worst team for accuracy, going at a miserly 39.8 per cent, and had kicked just 45 goals in their five games.

They were again wasteful in the front half, kicking 7.12 from 42 entries.

"I've seen this group execute much better, so we just have to keep working at it," Richardson added.

"We want to make more of our opportunities."

WATCH: Alan Richardson's full post-match media conference

The Saints were slow out of the blocks, trailing by 21 points at quarter-time. But they gradually worked their back into the match and were within striking distance going into the final break just 11 points in arrears.

"It's very hard to look back on positives when you let yourself down so badly as we did in the last quarter," the coach said.

"The fact that we were in the game for as long as we were when we weren’t able to generate much of a score in terms of being able to maximise our work [was a positive]."

The Saints are languishing in 16th on the ladder, with just the one win and draw to their credit.