ADELAIDE ruckman Sam Jacobs has been told to find form fast by coach Brenton Sanderson.

Jacobs was soundly beaten by the Port Adelaide combination of Brent Renouf and Matthew Lobbe on Sunday.

 

Jacobs won the Showdown Medal in round 17 last year when he amassed 61 hit-outs – almost an AFL record.

 

But the Crows were beaten 46-39 in hit-outs on Sunday and, crucially, the Power made the most of the ascendancy by winning clearances and inside 50s.

 

When the ball hit the ground the Power was too strong, winning contested possession 160-145.

 

Jacobs had just seven centre square hit-outs compared to Renouf's 10 and Lobbe's nine.

  

"He got beaten," Sanderson said bluntly of his No.1 ruckman.

 

"He's one of our players that needs to lift and he knows that, we're not getting the dominance that we used to in there.

 

"He's one player that's going to have to find some form pretty quickly."

 

Power coach Ken Hinkley said Jacobs' domination in last year's Showdown spurred a selection change that saw Renouf brought into the side for Jarrad Redden.

 

He said Renouf executed his role perfectly.

 

"We made the (selection) change obviously and we were pretty confident in big 'Roufy' that he would be able to come in and compete really hard for us," Hinkley said.

 

"His numbers when he was up and about and fit last year were quite impressive.

 

"We've got him back and he's fit and he's competing hard and big 'Lobbes' [too]."

 

Sanderson said his side had so far failed to show improvement since its dramatic exit from last season's preliminary final.

 

From himself down, the coach admitted speedy progress was needed in order to turn its 1-2 start to the season around.

 

"It starts with the senior coach, I've got to identify ways that I need to improve and get better at coaching," Sanderson said.

 

"From the top down, we'll put a much better performance on than that I'm sure.

 

"We just need some of our better players to improve and we're not getting the consistency of performance at the moment."

 

While insisting no club should lose a game when 31 points ahead in the third quarter, Sanderson said his side never deserved the advantage.

 

The Crows were beaten in nearly every important statistic for much of the game on Sunday and Sanderson said he didn't hide it from his players.

 

"I said to the players at half-time, 'don't be seduced by the scoreboard', because we were getting beaten around the contest even though we were in front," he said.

 

"The better team won today."

 

Harry Thring is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.