BRISBANE coach Chris Fagan has questioned whether his players got ahead of themselves after a positive pre-season and were not ready for their nine-goal thumping by Port Adelaide on Saturday.

The 2022 preliminary finalists, who were bolstered in the off-season by the additions of Josh Dunkley, Jack Gunston, Conor McKenna and Will Ashcroft, were blown away by a rampant Power side, particularly after half-time, losing 18.18 (126) to 11.6 (72) at Adelaide Oval.

POWER v LIONS Full match coverage and stats

The heavy loss came after Brisbane had beaten last year's grand finalists Sydney and Geelong by 45 and 46 points respectively in its pre-season hitouts, with their new recruits impressing and spirits high about a premiership challenge in 2023.

"We came into the game with confidence on the back of our form but perhaps that was the problem," Fagan said.

"For some reason the effort wasn't there, our reaction time was poor, all the things we pride ourselves on were not evident.

"There's the game statistics that tell you what happened but there's also what's happening in people's minds and were we as ready as we should've been today to play a really hard game of footy? Responsibility for that sits on my shoulders as much as it sits on the players."

Brisbane had led by three goals late in the second term but Fagan argued the half-time lead was flattering. Port piled on 13 second-half goals to Brisbane's three, running away with the game with a significant domination of possession after half-time.

LION TAMERS Port dismantles Brisbane to send powerful warning

In the second half, the Power had 205-110 disposals (405-263 for the game), 37-15 inside 50s (65-40), 21-14 clearances (47-38) and 71-44 contested possessions (150-117).

"It's not something that's part of our trademark," Fagan said.

"We haven't seen that at our club for a long, long time. The differential in the contested possessions, in the clearances, in disposals was massive. Port should have won by more, to be honest.

"Hard to explain, uncharacteristic performance by us. There were no signs of that in our pre-season, we had two good games against the Swans and Geelong.

"Whether that was an influencing factor, whether we turned up here today and thought perhaps we were going a bit better than we were, it's hard to say. Very, very disappointing performance and not one that's typical of our club in the last four years.

"They (the midfield) need to just respond. Sometimes you get beaten in sport, you don't win every week. In our practice games against good midfields, we've had good results. Today we got cleaned up."

The Lions are now facing a potential 0-2 start, with 2021 premiers Melbourne up next in round two at the Gabba on Friday night.

"We haven't got long to work out how we get better," Fagan said, before adding former captain Dayne Zorko might be available after a hamstring injury, having played 20 minutes in match practice on Tuesday.

Power coach Ken Hinkley was thrilled with his side's performance, particularly the impact of new recruits Jason Horne-Francis (25 disposals and a goal) and Junior Rioli (16 disposals, three goals and eight score involvements).

"Our list management team and (list manager) Jason Cripps should be feeling pretty good today with what he's brought to our club to help us," Hinkley said. "We're a really good club at identifying things we need to be better at."

Horne-Francis, who was brought in from North Melbourne after going with the No.1 pick in the 2021 draft, was a key figure in the victory, with game-highs for goal assists (three), clearances (seven) and inside 50s (10).

The midfielder gathered 10 disposals in Port's dominant third term, playing a huge part in helping them turn a 12-point half-time deficit into a 32-point three quarter-time lead. Hinkley, however, was eager to cool down the hype around the teenager.

"He's 19, he's got a long, long way to go," Hinkley said.

"He'll make some mistakes, he'll have some days where it won't be quite as good as today was, but he should be mighty proud.

"Jase is just a competitive person who wants to play well every time he plays football. Sometimes, like any good young player, they can get a little bit lost at times when they can't perform like they want. But they're in the big league, they're at the top of the pops now, it's not always going to go great for you. They all learn a bit as they go."

Hinkley brushed off questions about Horne-Francis' club debut being among the best seen at Port, insisting it's all about sustaining that level rather than one performance.

"He was pick one in the draft," Hinkley said. "Let's not spend too much time talking about what he's capable of, that's why you go No.1 in the draft, because you're really capable.

"Now you've got to execute consistently over a long period of time to be recognised as a really good to great player, and that's what he's hoping to do."