OUT-OF-CONTRACT St Kilda coach Nick Dal Santo has been called out for his "defensive" post-match press conference, after the Saints recorded their lowest score in club history over the weekend.

Although originally conceding they "didn't play very well" against the Western Bulldogs, Dal Santo played out the rest of his press conference listing weather conditions, injuries and travel as reasons why his side was only able to score the single point on the day.

As the press conference grew "tense" with questions continuing from reporters, AFL.com.au's Joel Peterson likened Dal Santo’s defensive demeanour to that of his men's coach counterpart Ross Lyon.

"There were a couple of moments where he sort of put it back on myself [and the journalists], and that sort of felt like one right out of the Ross Lyon playbook," Peterson said on AFL.com.au's The Wrap.

"I mean, this is a guy who's a Ross Lyon disciple. It felt like a little bit of a deflection just to try and protect the playing group. And I understand as a coach that you've got to do that.

"And look, some of this is understandable. The reality of where they're at in terms of injuries is a big part of this and playing top-up players is where they're at. But, I mean, that performance was so far below the level that I think as a St Kilda supporter, you maybe want to see, and he mentioned the word ownership, maybe you want to see a little bit more ownership taken of that."

AFLW expert Kate McCarthy also noted that the excuse of the weather conditions was not quite good enough considering the loss was not an anomaly for the currently winless side.

"I think in any league when you're 0-8 and then compounding that with your most recent loss, (where) it almost looked like for a good part of that game that they weren't going to score a single point…I mean, it doesn't get much more dire than that, does it?" McCarthy said.

"So, you haven't won a game, you’re struggling to score as it is, and then you can't hit the scoreboard in a game. Yes, horrible conditions, but the Bulldogs played in those conditions as well. Both teams were playing in the same conditions."

Whilst empathetic to the difficult position Dal Santo is now in as the face of the under-pressure club, McCarthy believes this season’s performance makes it difficult to see how the club will offer him another contract beyond 2026.

"I just think any league where you're coaching, I mean, there's going to be a big microscope put on the coach who takes a lot of responsibility. But that is part of the job as the head coach of a program and someone that's coming out of contract at the end of the season," McCarthy said.

"I don't like comparing women's football to men's football. But if this was a men's football coach, they would be under intense scrutiny, intense pressure, and yes, you have the luxury of maybe not being under that same sort of pressure in the W for the coverage of it. But I don't think it gets much more dire than what we're seeing at St Kilda right now.

"I don't want to fire Nick Dal Santo, because it's someone's job at the end of the day. But you struggle to see a way where he's coaching St Kilda in [2027]."