Ratten was quick to dismiss the need for outside assistance after 22-year-old King kicked 0.5 in their 15-point loss to the Lions, but walked back his comments on Monday night, admitting emotions had got the better of him.

He'd been adamant King wouldn't see anyone outside the club as he "doesn't need to", continuing a trend from last year where the Saints didn't allow Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd to help him out.

It ruined an otherwise brilliant night for King as he took some big marks and asserted his aerial dominance, but remained stuck on 47 goals for the year.

"The emotions were running high ... I will defend Max every day but probably the bit I did close off was not using somebody externally," Ratten told Fox Sports.

"A lot of key forwards in the early stages of their careers have had games like that, you could go through and take (Lance) Franklin and (Tom) Hawkins, (Nick and Jack) Riewoldt.

"We should be open to using someone external and we'll talk about that when we analyse everything and our footy club over the next few weeks."

King has now kicked 3.10 in his last three outings, but particularly bad games are continuing to become a theme with various returns this season including 1.7 and 2.5.

Ratten said the woes could be put down to a combination of mental and technique problems, while adding fatigue was also becoming a factor.

But he didn't let the other Saints off the hook for their hand in the loss either.

"There were others that missed as well ... and we've spoken today, could somebody have gone up to Max and just calmed him down, (told him) 'get back to your routine and go back and slot the goal," he said.

"It's not just about one thing, it's multiple and there's other players that had shots as well."

Australian Associated Press