PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has blasted his side after an insipid 86-point loss to Greater Western Sydney in Canberra, questioning the Power's leadership and mental toughness.
The Giants kicked a club record score in first quarter, first half, and for the match, and only poor finishing from the home side saved Hinkley's men from a three-figure drubbing.
GWS kicked 6.6 in the opening term and followed that up with eight more goals in the second, with Port's lack of intensity and willingness to compete on show for all to see.
Post-match the coach was still fuming, and agreed that the effort was close to Port's worst in his time at the club, saying it was on par with their humiliating loss to Adelaide in the Showdown a fortnight ago.
"They're the questions that you're allowed to ask and should ask, I don't know that I want to separate both, I think both performances three weeks apart were equally as bad," Hinkley said.
"It was embarrassing and not up to the level we expect of ourselves, but you know what, it's been a bit consistent.
"It's been something we haven't been able to get right, we haven't been able to play hard enough and strong enough for long enough when it goes against us.
"As soon as it went against us we weren't prepared to work as hard as we needed to and hang on, and we wrestled it back at the start but the next challenge came and we just weren't up for it.
"You can't turn up in AFL football and be inconsistent in your ability to compete, and right now that's not there."
WATCH: Ken Hinkley's full post-match media conference
The Power's most experienced players Travis Boak, Hamish Hartlett, Jackson Trengove and Matthew Lobbe failed to match the intent of the Giants when the game was in its early stages, and the visitors never recovered.
To his credit, Hinkley refused to make excuses for the players, but also put the onus on the club as a whole to lift.
"We'll own that as leaders of the club, we'll own that responsibility and I'm not throwing the players in there on their own, the coaches are the leaders of the players," he said.
"We have to say that's not good enough.
"From a players point of view I've always said that the most important ingredient in leadership is game day.
"You need to be able to perform to a level that leads the rest of the team and we haven't been able to do that.
"We need to be mentally stronger that's the key ingredient I think.
"We watched football over the weekend and we watched good teams go at it, and you see the ingredient, it's just a will to keep fighting and keep winning.
"We've been working at it for some time and obviously on today's results you'd have to say it's still got a long way to go, I can't disagree with you.
"I have to acknowledge that we have to continue to work in that space and be more demanding and more driven to get where we need to go, and at the moment we're not delivering."
High profile recruit Charlie Dixon was one of the Port players to have a nightmare outing, with the big forward unable to have an influence on the match.
To make matters worse for Dixon, he gave away six free kicks and was reported last in the match from striking GWS co-captain Phil Davis off the ball.
"We don't want to be that (way) because that's not the way we respond when things are going against you," Hinkley said.
"In our footy club that's not something we want to do, it is frustration that brings that out and it's a sign of weakness."
