PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley is imploring his leaders to "stand up" on Saturday night against Geelong to ensure the club rebounds strongly from an embarrassing effort last week.
The Power were slaughtered by Greater Western Sydney last weekend in Canberra with Hinkley heaping the bulk of the blame on the side’s most respected players.
Skipper Travis Boak was public in his self-condemnation, and while the coach went easy on the likes of Jake Neade, Karl Amon and Darcy Byrne-Jones, he said the Power needed more from its stars.
"The players who we’ve relied on over the journey who have been our better players … the ones we regard really highly are the ones who are probably not delivering at the level they need to," Hinkley said.
"The younger boys are the ones who are there to support the older boys.
"The best leadership you’ll ever give is on game day … our leaders need to stand up."
At 2-2 the Power’s predicament - on paper at least - is hardly disastrous, but Hinkley said it was the style in which the two losses had occurred that was worrying.
The club dropped the out-of-form Jared Polec for Saturday night’s clash as well as Brendon Ah Chee, bringing in versatile pair Cam O’Shea and Paul Stewart.
Hinkley said Polec had "some stuff" to work on in the SANFL, but he was also quick to point out the wingman was "coming from a long way back", having failed to play a game last season after round five due to injury.
Given the severity of Port’s loss last week, the two changes could be viewed as a conservative selection policy, but the coach insisted he would continue to back his playing group.
"The captain put his own hand up pretty high this week and said ‘my own form’s not been where it needs to be’”.
"They’ve been brave enough to own their own situations," Hinkley said.
"We’re two and two, but the two losses have been really poor - that’s what we’ve got to understand.
"In last week’s game it was as much about where the ball started - at the stoppage - and the spread from there was just too good for us.
"We weren’t able to defend the stoppage structure as well as we’d like."
