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REIGNING Port Adelaide best and fairest Travis Boak says his side has to focus on putting four quarters together before contemplating beating Fremantle on Sunday at Patersons Stadium.
The Power have been plagued by inconsistency in 2012, with drops in intensity costing the side dearly in each of its five losses since an inspiring opening-round win over St Kilda.
Against Richmond last weekend, the Power gave up 10 scoring shots to one in the second quarter, allowing the Tigers to take a 41-point lead into half-time.
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While the Power nearly dragged themselves back into the contest in the third term, the damage had already been done, and Boak flagged consistent football as his side's salvation.
"We can't concentrate on going over there and getting a result in the win, we've just got to concentrate on winning the four quarters," he said.
"If we can do that the result will take care of itself.
"We've been able to play really good footy for three quarters and there's just 20 minutes that lets us down. That's something we need to improve on to take the next step and win games."
Port Adelaide has come under fire in the media this week, just as coach Matthew Primus predicted after the loss to Richmond.
On Fox Footy's AFL 360 this week, former North Melbourne great David King accused Power players of failing to chase hard enough against Richmond.
Boak denied the claim, and said that while the group shouldn't rely on such talk for motivation, the criticism couldn't be ignored.
"I guess it does hurt if you hear things like that because that's something you do pride yourself on in the midfield group. That's something to have in our back pockets to have to spur us on a little bit," Boak said.
"That's something we don't want to be seen as.
"Each week we want to go out and be harder than our opposition at the ball."
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Despite five consecutive losses, Boak said Port Adelaide's players still maintained a high level of optimism about how far they had progressed since last year, when the side's average losing margin was 53 points.
"There's still that excitement and positivity around the group; I think our training session today was probably one of the best we've had," he said.
"Our improvement over the last few years, it's been huge this year, but we just haven't got the result."
Boak said the trip westwards to play at the 'House of Pain' didn't spook the Power.
"Going over to Perth's a big task … it's probably the longest trip you'd do for most clubs and West Coast and Fremantle are pretty good sides, so it's hard to go over there and play against a really good side," he said.
"But we love playing over there. We love playing on the big open spaces. It's good to get away for a few days as well and spend a bit of time with each other."
Harry Thring covers Port Adelaide news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.
