PORT Adelaide coach Mark Williams concedes that his side needs to be more competitive in the midfield to break its losing start to the season.

The Power struggled at the stoppages throughout its 68-point loss to the Sydney Swans at the SCG.

 And the third term, when the Swans kicked seven goals to Port Adelaide’s one, was of particular concern.

“The ability of the opposition to take the ball from the backline to the forward line without us touching the ball was concerning to us,” Williams said.

“Obviously the midfielders have to play better, but we don’t think any particular players played particularly well.”

Despite the Swans’ dominance in midfield, Williams said the magnitude of the loss came as a surprise.

“I watched them last week and they kicked six goals for the game. To kick 22 and beat us by double our score was certainly something we didn’t see [coming],” he said.

“I thought probably for three quarters we were competitive. The third quarter, we were just terrible. It looked like boys versus men out there.”

Shaun Burgyone’s four-goal game from midfield, a promising – albeit inaccurate – performance by skipper Warren Tredrea and Kane Cornes’ negating job on Tadhg Kenelly were among the few highlights, Williams said.

The Power faces the first Showdown of the season against Adelaide next week and the Port Adelaide coach is likely to resist wholesale changes for the first Showdown of the season.

“Our players that played particularly well and really moved forward last year, we haven’t seen that from them this year. We need to get a more even spread from 15 or so players,” he said.

“We’ll consider who played well in the SANFL and no one’s got a gold pass forever, [but] it’s important when you have young players that you do show some confidence in them,” he said.

 “Next week’s a huge game for us. We’re playing the Crows and if we need something to get us up, that would be it, but we certainly can’t deliver that sort of stuff and expect to win.”