PORT Adelaide vice-captain Kane Cornes says his side can’t afford to rely on talent alone to win games against the best teams in the competition.

The Power put in an inspired performance to topple Hawthorn at the MCG last week and record what coach Mark Williams described as the club's greatest home-and-away victory.

And even though they went into Friday night’s clash with undefeated St Kilda full of confidence, the Power failed to replicate the committed performance that saw them upstage the reigning premier.

Cornes said the 66-point loss, ending Port Adelaide's dominance of St Kilda at AAMI Stadium since 1997, showed his side was a little way off the top sides.

"We’re not a superstar side," he said after the game. "We just have to bring the intensity and the effort we saw last week, otherwise we’ll lose by 10 goals every week.

"It was a really disappointing performance on the big stage in front of our home crowd. We’ve got a long weekend to think about it and all we can do is train hard, build up for another big week and hopefully put in a better effort than we did tonight."

St Kilda’s first goal, to captain Nick Riewoldt, came from a Port Adelaide skill error in defence.

The Saints put huge pressure on ball carriers throughout the game and Cornes said it was a good learning experience for his side.

"Choco (Williams) put up all the stats after the game and the one that killed us was the turnovers," he said.

"We pride ourselves on being a really fast, skilful team and when we’re not executing our skills like that—it’s the main philosophy of our game plan— we’re not going to win too many games."

Cornes was one of the few shining lights for Port Adelaide, teaming up with Tom Logan (later concussed) to hold in-form Saints Nick Dal Santo and Leigh Montagna to just 24 possessions between them by three-quarter time.

The Power identified Dal Santo and Montagna as two of the keys to St Kilda’s early-season success, but not even stopping them could derail the visitors.

"That’s the trait of a good side," Cornes said. "If their better players don’t get the footy, the next level step up and I thought that was what happened tonight.

"It’s something we can learn from. If our leaders aren’t doing much out on the field, they can take the reins, really step up and have a good game."

The Power meet cross-town rival Adelaide next week.