PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has admitted that he made a mistake by selecting injured skipper Connor Rozee in Thursday night's Showdown against Adelaide.

The Power's punt on their skipper backfired after he hurt his hamstring again and was subbed off in the 30-point loss to their arch rivals.

Rozee came into the match under an injury cloud after failing to finish last Friday night's win against St Kilda due to a hamstring issue, however he was cleared to play by the club's medical staff and coaches.

After landing awkwardly early in the third quarter, he spent an extended 13-minute stint on the bench trying to get his body right. While he did return to play briefly, his revival was short-lived and he was subbed out at three-quarter time with what the club said was hamstring tightness.

"I made a mistake playing Connor Rozee tonight. That was clear, it was obvious," Hinkley said.

"All the testing that we'd done, all the medical support we could get, all the information I could get was Connor was able to play.

"I'd seen it with my own eyes - he was able to run as fast as he needed to, kick as long as he needed to - but once fatigue set in tonight, it was clear.

"I can try and hide behind it, but I'm not. I'm not a coward when it comes to owning a mistake, and that was what it was, a mistake.

"(It was) my call."

Hinkley was confident Rozee didn't worsen the injury by playing, but said he would be sent for scans to assess the damage.

"It's no worse, but it's the same issue, which suggests to me that if he had the week off, he would be better next week," Hinkley said.

"I let Connor down by letting him play.

"He thought he was absolutely right to play ... He was flat out two days in a row, no problems at all. Kicked the ball from 60 metres, had shots at goal.

"I'd seen all the things you needed to see. (But) I should've known that was perhaps going to happen, and I set Connor up to fail as a player by the way he had to perform out there."

Rozee wasn't the only injury concern to come out of the match for Port, with key forward Mitch Georgiades copping a knock to a knee and defender Lachie Jones sustaining a leg injury.

The win was the Crows' third Showdown victory in a row, and they now hold overall boasting rights over the Power - in 55 games between the SA rivals, Adelaide has a 28-27 edge.

Crows coach Matthew Nicks praised his side for a "really mature performance" against their more fancied opponents.

"That was a really good performance," Crows coach Matthew Nicks said.

"We were up against a really good side and we knew the game had to pay out a certain way and we were able to do that.

"It may have looked scrappy on the telly, it couldn't have been more perfect from our point of view so a really pleasing all-round performance.

"The team we played against are a very, very good football side ... we started really well, I thought we threw the first punch and that set us up, we had the ascendancy from that point.

"It was a grind, we knew they'd come ... but for our guys to just dig in and get it done in the end was really pleasing it was a really mature performance."

After dropping their first four games of the season the Crows move to 3-5 after the win, with games against last year's Grand Finalists Brisbane and Collingwood to come in the next fortnight.

Port Adelaide (5-3) makes the trip to GMHBA Stadium next Sunday to face Geelong, before hosting Hawthorn the following week.