PORT Adelaide must rediscover its contested brand of footy to match with it with the League's best, coach Ken Hinkley says.
The Power matched the Giants for most of their round four clash in Canberra, and led at three-quarter time, but let the home side kick 5.6 to 0.1 in the final term to lose by 31 points.
GWS won the contested ball count 162-138, and while Hinkley was pleased with the effort of his players, he lamented the lopsided stats for the second week running, after they were on the receiving end of a similar mauling from Adelaide (176-145) last week.
"I think we're playing pretty strongly for most parts of games, and our last two games have been against the teams that people say are the best in the competition, and we've been able to push them, but not be able to beat them," he said.
"There's a lot to learn still for us and a lot to get better at, I mean both of those better teams have beaten us badly in contested ball, and we need to make sure that doesn't happen.
"You can't win big games if you're that far (behind in contested ball), you can lose by a little bit, but you can't get belted up in it, and in the first two weeks we were really strong in that stat.
"Clearly there a domination in the last quarter, but there was a really strong effort for three quarters and the two teams were evenly matched, but to their credit they really did step up when they needed to most."
WATCH: Ken Hinkley's full post-match media conference
The Power sorely missed the influence of suspended ruckman paddy Ryder, and although Jackson Trengove battled manfully against Shane Mumford and Rory Lobb, the Giants won the clearances 49-30, and had too much talent for Port to counter around the footy.
"It would be nice to not to have to call on him (to play) in that spot, but unfortunately we had too again today," Hinkley said.
"(Shane) Mumford was a pretty important player for them, and their clearance work and work in tight was just a bit better than ours.
"'Jacko' (Jackson Trengove) tried his heart out every time he goes in there, but he's just a bit undersized against a bloke like 'Mummy' in there."
