TRAVIS Boak has some simple advice for battling Port Adelaide teammate Hamish Hartlett on how to break free of taggers' clutches: work harder.

Hartlett has been kept to a combined 17 disposals in the past two weeks after heavy attention from opposition midfielders.

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The 22-year-old was arguably the club's most important player in its opening five games (and wins), managing more than 20 touches in four of those games.

The exception was the Power's round two win over Greater Western Sydney – but Hartlett was injured.

He averaged almost five marks a game in the first five rounds but Hartlett has taken only one since.

Boak said the recipe for beating a tag was almost a rite of passage for the AFL's elite midfielders.

"This is probably the first time Hamish has probably dealt with that heavy tag and heavy opposition coming at him," Boak said.

"Every good player goes through that – eventually that tagger will come.

"For him it's just all about working hard, just keep working hard and eventually it'll break.

"It's just all about work rate. The harder you work, the easier it becomes."

But Boak said the rest of the team had to also try harder to free their star midfielder, insisting they were a much stronger side with the ball in Hartlett's hands.

"For us, as a team to help him we've just got to keep at his tagger and keep giving him the ball because we all know that when Hamish has the ball in his hand we're a lot better," he said.

"We've just got to help Hamish get over that as quick as he can because we want him to be as influential in games as he can."

The Power started their road to redemption in outstanding fashion this season but Boak conceded the club's bid to regain some on-field respect had stagnated after successive losses to North Melbourne and Richmond.

However, the skipper insisted coming games against Carlton, Geelong and the Western Bulldogs provided Port Adelaide with more opportunities to to continue its road to on-field redemption.

Harry Thring for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry