LOSING St Kilda greats Nick Riewoldt and Leigh Montagna left a leadership vacuum Alan Richardson concedes he underestimated and the Saints coach will consider recruiting an experienced player to fill the void.

Riewoldt and Montagna both retired at the end of last season, while defender Sean Dempster finished earlier than them, in April.

Those departures meant backman Sam Gilbert was the only person on the list aged over 30 coming into the 2018 campaign, and Richardson told Melbourne radio station SEN on Saturday morning that had an impact he didn't entirely foresee.

"This group hasn't played as well as it played last year, if you just look at the current personnel," Richardson said.

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"Riewoldt, Montagna, Dempster weren't having a great influence on the game. They were still playing serviceable footy, and I probably underestimated a little bit of the vaccum in leadership … but that's created great opportunities to growth for those guys coming through."

Whether that trio of stalwarts could have continued was questionable, with Dempster fearing the impact of suffering another head knock, while Richardson explained the differing situations Riewoldt and Montagna faced.

"'Rooey' was buggered. His body was buggered. He's a warrior so there was that period where he was 'Can I get going? Can I not?'. Then eventually, through conversations with others and an understanding of where he was at, he gave it away," Richardson said. 

"'Joey' was a little bit different. Whilst he did his hammy late, a really bad one, by and large he'd been a bit more durable and whilst it didn't work for us with those guys."

Luke Hodge's move from Hawthorn to Brisbane is something St Kilda could emulate.

"I think Hodgey's been outstanding for Brisbane," Richardson said.

"I can see what impact that's had on the young blokes. Probably 90 per cent of it happens on the training track and in the rooms as opposed to out on the ground, and that's all that we see.

"We're certainly open to possibly looking at someone like that to bring into our group to support the leadership group and to support our younger playing group."