PORT Adelaide is in for a week of soul-searching following Sunday night's upset loss to the Brisbane Lions, coach Ken Hinkley says.

The Power coach described the 37-point defeat as the worst in his tenure at the club, saying his players were simply not working hard enough.

The premiership fancies are now 3-4 after successive losses against West Coast and the Lions, and a mile from their best form.

Hinkley said there was nowhere to hide, and the message was simple.

"They're just not working hard enough," Hinkley said.

"Don't worry about us being a top-four or top-eight team, just worry about us being a team for a start.

"We've lost focus on what's important, and what's important is being a good team.

"We just weren't hard enough and we just did not compete like an AFL football team, and if you're going to compete like we did tonight you'll lose more than you win."

The Lions kicked six goals to one in a second quarter that blew the game open.

They often led Port Adelaide to the ball, and despite some flickers of life from the visitors during the third quarter, were rarely troubled after half-time.

Hinkley was making no excuses and denied taking the Lions too easy, saying there was no quick fix for his team's problems.

"We need to go back and soul-search a little and find some answers," he said.

"We'll have to start to work our way back, we won't just charge back, we'll have to work our way back.

"Let's be honest, it's been a pretty good time for a couple of years and everything's been quite positive about what Port Adelaide have been able to do, but right now Port Adelaide is not delivering on the main ingredient and that's playing team footy.

"This is going to take some solid, hard work and good old fashioned grunt to try and work our way out of it and get ourselves back on track, and it's going to have to start next week."