PORT Adelaide coach Matthew Primus says the additions of Josh Carr and Shaun Rehn to the Power's coaching staff is paying dividends on the field, with his side smashing St Kilda at the clearances.

Primus had spent the summer emphasising the importance of contested possession and midfield structures, and Sunday night's four-point win showed just how far the Power had come since the end of season 2011.

From the opening bounce, Port looked to be on top through the middle, going into the first break 11-4 up in clearances. That rate continued throughout the match, with the Power finishing clear winners, 43-29.

"Shaun Rehn and Josh Carr have done a lot of work with the mids ... [aiming to] really focus on trying to stop the scoring out of (the midfield) and secondly trying to get some good ball movement out of it," Primus said after the round one victory.

"But I thought tonight was pretty pleasing for the majority of it."

St Kilda coach Scott Watters was clearly upset with his players' inability to win the contested ball, registering 25 fewer contested possessions than the Power.

"I'm not going to name players," Watters said. "But ultimately we need structures and players in particular that are prepared to go in there and win the footy."

The Power looked determined from the beginning of the match, kicking five of the first six goals.

Watters was left to rue his side's poor start, saying it was especially important to begin well when playing away from home.

"We put ourselves behind the eight ball," he said.

"The players were good enough to work their way back into the game.

"But there are three fundamentals in football - contested possession, first-hands and hard-ball gets.

"And ultimately in a close contest, we were shaded in those areas."

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.