The Saints defeated Hamilton on Saturday 11.7 (73) to 7.7 (49) to move to fifth on the ladder after seven rounds.

The reigning premier, this year a vastly different side to last season, is currently without about 11 senior players, according to McLaren.

"That obviously includes three Coates Talent League boys which we obviously don't get a lot of access to but I look at (Tim) Martin, (Taylor) McKenry, Tom Couch, Jayden Whitehead, Alex Pulling, they're all senior players, they're all older, bigger bodies," he said.

McLaren said the younger members of his side were starting to step up.

"We're seeing little wins from our players," he said.

"I thought Nathan Rentsch who's come across from Penshurst, another young player, showed some really good forward pressure today and kicked a goal too.

"A guy called Jag McInerney in the ruck (played well), he's still an under 18 player. I thought those boys amongst plenty of others were just showing some things. That was definitely Jag's best game. Matt Bradley took some really strong contested marks today, kicked a couple of goals."

Gun midfielder James Gow starred for the Saints while teammate Clem Nagorcka kicked three goals.

McLaren praised his side's intensity and effort and was delighted to see his side seal its fourth win in such an "even comp".

"I know Hamilton haven't won a game but they were pretty good today and they've been in a lot of their games," he said.

The Saints started their campaign slowly with consecutive losses but have only lost one game since.

McLaren said his side was in a good headspace.

"You're a little bit flat when you have back-to-back losses until you get your first win but the mood of the group hasn't changed at all really in terms of whether it was a great win against Warrnambool, today or a tough loss against Camperdown last week," he said.

"They're pretty balanced, they're not too high, they're not too low."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: