PORT Adelaide coach Matthew Primus denies his team took a step backwards at AAMI Stadium on Sunday, despite a listless performance in the 56-point loss to St Kilda.
The Power had lost their past four games prior to the clash with the Saints, but were at least able to take confidence from their ability to compete with teams, including top-four fancies West Coast, for long periods within matches.
On Sunday, there were few positives for the home team, which was never really in the contest against the resurgent Saints.
The visitors kicked two goals in the opening 90 seconds of the game, including a goal to skipper Nick Riewoldt from a free kick before the first ball had been bounced, to lead by 18 points at quarter-time.
Port Adelaide closed to within 13 points early in the second quarter, but struggled to win the ball around the stoppages and conceded four unanswered goals to watch the lead blow out to 31 points at half-time.
The Power managed only two behinds in the third term, posting their second scoreless quarter in two weeks and only consolation goals to substitute Cam Hitchcock and otherwise quiet midfielders Matthew Broadbent and Danyle Pearce prevented the team from recording its lowest score of the season.
Port Adelaide sent the ball inside 50m only 32 times, compared to St Kilda's 56 and Primus said his team's inability to generate enough of the ball in the midfield remained an issue.
"St Kilda's ability to dominate the stoppages and really get all over the top of us in the first quarter really set the tone for how they wanted to play," he said.
"That [St Kilda] team has been a pretty good one for the last two or three years and we came up well short against them today.
"I've seen improvement over the last month and I'm not saying we've gone backwards [against St Kilda].
"It's becoming a pretty long season and I thought their ability to spread and get outside us was really good.
"We got beaten by a very good team, but what we do take out of this is our players can see how good we need to be week-in and week-out, and what this [St Kilda] team is striving to do to get back to where they've been in the last two or three years."
Promising onballer Hamish Hartlett starred for Port Adelaide, amassing a career-high 32 disposals (16 contested) and seven marks in his new role across half-back.
Skilful forward Robbie Gray relished more time in the midfield, finishing with 26 disposals, eight tackles, six clearances and a goal, while veteran Chad Cornes held dangerous St Kilda defender Sam Fisher to a mere 10 touches.
Skipper Dom Cassisi (25 possessions and seven clearances) worked hard as always, but Primus conceded his team had too few contributors.
There were concerns the Power's loss had been compounded by a serious arm injury to defender Jackson Trengove in the final quarter.
Trengove developed a bump the size of a golf ball and left the ground nursing his arm after Riewoldt accidentally trod on the young backman's wrist.
It was feared Trengove had fractured his wrist, but the club was optimistic the swelling - which had subsided by the final siren - was caused by a burst blood vessel and not a broken bone.
"[The doctors think] it burst a blood vessel [which caused it] to swell right up. We'll have a look at how that goes later in the week," Primus said.
"We travel to Darwin on Thursday ahead of the game against Melbourne, so we'll see how quickly it comes up."
Katrina Gill covers Port Adelaide news for afl.com.au. Follow her on Twitter: @AFL_KatrinaGill
