PORT Adelaide players have been effectively barred from big end-of-season trips in the wake of the death of John McCarthy.

McCarthy fell to his death from a Las Vegas casino complex rooftop last September while on an offseason trip with about 10 Port teammates.

Port coach Ken Hinkley says there are no such trips planned this year.

"Clearly this group has lived something which is an absolute tragedy and they understand that and they're mindful of that," Hinkley told reporters on Wednesday.

"I'm sure they will spend some time together in smaller groups somewhere, because a lot of them are mates - it's like anyone going away with your friends.

"There is nothing organised certainly from a football trip point of view.

"It's not something we want to do. And the club don't want to do it either.

"So the players will spend some time together. They will enjoy each other's company ... it is their holiday time. They're entitled to have a bit of a spell.

"And let's hope they have a really good time this time on their holidays and they can come back really excited about football."

Port's season ended with a semi-final loss to Geelong last Friday night.

First-year coach Hinkley said the fact Port made the finals for the first time since 2007 would impact on their next pre-season, which would start later because of the prescribed holiday period for players.

"We are actually going to be a month behind (some other clubs) when we get back," Hinkley said.

"And we have got to catch that up, look to ways to try and cram some of that into our pre-season because we can't afford to go backwards, we have to go forwards.

"Last year we felt as if we probably had the ability to get to 70 or 80 per cent of what we would consider a maximum preseason because our group had come off a lot of surgery and we weren't ready for that, we were quite young.

"This year, we want to take that to another level and hopefully improve in that area."