PORT Adelaide midfielder Travis Boak says the players are hurting in the wake of the club's record 138-point loss to Collingwood, and accusations several members of the team "shirked the issue" at AAMI Stadium on Saturday night.
The Power were annihilated by the rampant Magpies, conceding 12 goals before finally registering their first major, courtesy of forward Daniel Stewart at the 28-minute mark of the second term.
The undermanned home team managed only two more goals for the game, posting its lowest-ever score, 3.3 (21).
The humiliating defeat eclipsed Port Adelaide's previous worst loss of 119 points in the fateful 2007 Grand Final against Geelong.
Following Saturday night's thumping, former Power hard man Josh Carr and dual Crows premiership player Shaun Rehn accused up to seven Port Adelaide players of being soft and failing to put their heads over the ball.
Boak, who starred with 31 possessions for the losing team, said the issue would be addressed with the individual players if the club's video review supported the damning accusations.
"We'll look at that today and if there were players going away from the contest we'll look at that and have a chat to them," Boak said on Monday.
"[Those accusations] would hurt and it's something you wouldn't want written about you.
"The guys, who are in that situation, will take it on board and learn from it."
It was a farewell game to forget for retiring champion Chad Cornes.
Boak said his team had let the respected premiership player down.
"It was pretty hard to look into Chad's eyes after the game. I sat down and had a think about it afterwards and it was pretty hard to cop," he said.
"It hurts. It [the record loss] is something we'll look back at, and don't want to be involved in. Hopefully, we don't get belted like that ever again.
"With losses like that comes improvement and knowledge of where we've got to get to."
The lopsided result prompted concerns from Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse the gap between the best and worst teams in the competition was growing.
"I guess it seems that way, with the results with Melbourne and Geelong last week and then us and Collingwood," Boak said in response to the comments.
"But I don't think we're that far off. We've just got to keep working on the things we need to improve on.
"We've got a good group and a lot of young players coming through and as we get games into them they're going to be better players. Another pre-season under their belts is really going to help.
"We'll be back up there in the next couple of years."
There are also concerns results, such as the one against Collingwood, will harm Port Adelaide's chances of retaining out-of-contract pair Jackson Trengove and Alipate Carlile.
But Boak, who resisted overtures from teams in his native Victoria to re-sign with the Power last season, was confident the core group of young players were committed to rebuilding the club.
"A lot of the guys are really close. I stayed at this club because I know we're going to get good results and a lot of other players are like that as well," he said.
"Jackson and Alipate are really close with a lot of guys and they love the club, so I'm sure they'll make a good decision.
"We've experienced the downs now. We’ll push through that and hopefully get some good results in the near future."
Port Adelaide could welcome back up to six key players for the club's clash with Hawthorn at the MCG on Saturday.
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Carlile (hip), Troy Chaplin (foot), Matt Thomas (knee) and ruckman Dean Brogan (calf) are all a chance to return, but forward Jay Schulz (back/foot) and Tom Logan (foot) remain in doubt.
Young players Hamish Hartlett (shoulder) and Jasper Pittard (hamstring) will both miss the rest of the season through injury.
Katrina Gill covers Port Adelaide news for afl.com.au. Follow her on Twitter: @AFL_KatrinaGill
