The Saints smacked Knights’ Bombers by 108 points at Telstra Dome on Sunday, in the process leapfrogging a handful of sides, most notably the Adelaide Crows.

Heading into the match, St Kilda knew it needed to win by roughly 16 goals, something many thought to be an unachievable feat.

However, the Saints hammered the injury-riddled Bombers, racing past the required margin midway through the final term.

Despite Ross Lyon’s team ploughing towards the huge win – and setting the pulses of Crows’ fans racing – Knights said his aim remained the same throughout the day: to simply to get his own team playing better football.

“I had no idea in the coaches’ box what the equation was with whether St Kilda would make top four or not, I was just concentrating on us” Knights said.

“Yes, you could have quite easily put numbers behind the ball but we haven’t done that all year … and I haven’t gone that way as a coach all year, so I wasn’t going to start to do it now in the last round.”

Again, it was an inexperienced Essendon side that took the field as injuries have taken their toll on Knights’ side, although the coach was reluctant to blame his sick list for one of its most disappointing efforts of the year.

Skipper Matthew Lloyd strained a hamstring early in the match but battled on, while Knights also revealed experienced pair Mark McVeigh and Jobe Watson played the match with soreness.

But that didn’t stop his despair with his side getting “blown away”.

“Today was a hugely disappointing way to finish the season,” Knights said.

“[It was] four goals to two goals after about 15 minutes or 20 minutes and we were in the game, but then physically we just couldn’t keep up.

“As the game wore on, we just couldn’t match St Kilda with their run.”

Adding to the sombre mood in the Bombers’ changerooms was the fact the club was farewelling four veterans, all of whom Knights labelled “wonderful people for the Essendon Footy Club”.

Jason Johnson, Adam Ramanauskas, Damien Peverill and Mal Michael might not have got the send-off they had wished for, but Essendon’s round 22 performance should not be seen as a lack of respect to the quartet, Knights said.

“I don’t think it means that our players or our club didn’t think about trying to or endeavouring to send the boys off in a good way,” Knights said.

“I think every player that represented our club today had that best intention to do so, [but] it just didn’t pan out like that.

“We didn’t play well enough, and I know there’s a lot of emotional players in there (the change rooms) that really do admire the four boys that are retiring."

As for his first season in the coaching hot seat, Knights admitted it had been a bumpy ride.

“To sum up the first year, it’s been like [being] on the Mad Mouse [ride] at the Melbourne Show,” Knights said.

“There’s certainly been some ups where we’ve played some good footy and then some periods of the season where we’ve played some very average football that hasn’t been good enough.

“From a win-loss point of view, I think it’s been a year that we would have liked to have picked up another two or three wins at least.

“From a development perspective, I think we’ve unearthed some good younger players that have shown that they can play at AFL level.

“We’ve just got to make sure they get good pre-seasons under their belts so they can continue their improvement next year.”