"THEY hang tough."

That's the upshot of Port Adelaide's 18-point loss to Carlton according to senior coach Ken Hinkley.

Although he expressed disappointment at his young side's inability to get on top of Carlton in a range of key areas, Hinkley said he expects there to be more days where the Power gets taught a lesson by "mature" opponents.

While not making excuses for Port's disappointing away loss, Hinkley focussed on the positive points from the result - namely his team's  willingness to keep maintaining its effort when behind.

He said the only way Port will know it has successfully learned to handle high-pressure opponents is when it turn its losses into wins.

"We're at round eight and you've just got to keep turning up," he said.

"You've got to handle it (pressure) ... keep playing in those games, turn them into wins - that's how you handle it.

"You see it with young teams, they have to handle that, they have to handle travelling and playing and coming up against good opponents.

"And dealing with it. It's experience."

That experience has seen Port Adelaide fall in losses for three consecutive weeks to North Melbourne, Richmond and now Carlton.

But unlike a 2012 season characterised by blowouts and capitulations, the 2013-model Power has been able to claw back deficits or keep touch with momentous opponents.

That was no better indicated than against West Coast.

Hinkley doesn't believe the 'comebacks' that delivered it wins in Round 3 and 5 can be expected every week, but is confident in the effort and undertaking of his playing group.

"I'm always pleased with their effort ... they always try to stay in the game and they don't give up," he said.

"They've done it again today.

"With eight minutes to go we were three goals down, we were one goal away from putting a bit of 'fright' into the game."

From here, Hinkley's focus is to prepare his team for a noteworthy encounter with Geelong - the side he was an assistant coach at for two of its three recent flags.

He has played down the personal importance of encountering the team he assistant coached and played 121 games for though, saying the importance for him was for Port to perform well against one of the current league leaders.

"I haven't been at the Cats for quite some time, I've been able to watch them for three years (from afar)," said Hinkley.

"They're a great strong side that tasted their first loss this week, I'm sure they'll be ready to go.

"It'll be a real test for us, but one that we welcome, we should look forward to playing against one of the best teams in the competition.

"Bring it on."