If there is one word St Kilda coach Alan Richardson and his players regularly mention during the week and on match day, it's belief - belief in what they are being taught, belief in the system, and belief in each other.

Few outside their home at Seaford would have believed the Saints would begin the season with successive wins - over Melbourne and Greater Western Sydney - even though all three teams are expected to finish in the lower rungs of the ladder.

But the Saints have proven otherwise, and hope to continue their strong start against West Coast at Patersons Stadium in Perth on Saturday.

Midfielder Jack Newnes, who had a career-high 26 disposals in the seven-point win against the Giants and hit his target by foot 82 per cent of the time, acknowledges the Saints face a difficult task.

"It’s the toughest trip, but we have a lot of belief,'' he said. "Our group is really fit, [Patersons Stadium] is obviously a big ground, but the work we did over in Colorado in Boulder, it was probably some of the hardest work we have ever done. So we take a lot of belief out of that and hopefully we can run really well and give it a fair shake.''

The Saints have done just that so far, led by skipper Nick Riewoldt, who is playing so well he may have polled six Brownlow Medal votes and has Essendon great Matthew Lloyd now ranking him ahead of Jonathan Brown and Matthew Pavlich on the modern-day list of star forwards.

Riewoldt is on a heavily modified training program through the week because of a degenerative knee.

''He stood up again. He has kicked five [goals] and worked so hard,'' Newnes said. "It’s great to have a bloke like that around the club. I just look up to him heaps and love watching what he does. You can really learn off him.''

The return of Lenny Hayes and Leigh Montagna, the latter now battling bone bruising in a knee, buoyed spirits last weekend. Young ruckman Tom Hickey was among the best, while midfield hardnuts Clint Jones and David Armitage worked hard against the Giants, with Armitage having a game-high 29 disposals and nine clearances.

Newnes was also strong an d particularly impressive late in the game along with fellow youngsters Luke Dunstan, Nathan Wright and Josh Saunders.

"We probably didn’t expect to be 2-0, but we knew we had Melbourne and GWS - definitely winnable games,'' Newnes said.

"We are stoked after two wins. We talk a lot about belief. It’s one of those words that we use a fair bit. There is a lot of belief in the boys now.