PORT Adelaide ruckman Dean Brogan has vowed to erase the bitter memory of Sunday’s 94-point loss to St Kilda with a fighting finish to the season that he hopes will see Matthew Primus installed as senior coach next year.  

The Power has rediscovered its competitiveness and spirit under Primus, which saw them notch wins over Adelaide and Hawthorn, but Brogan felt he and his teammates had let the former club captain down with the lacklustre display at Etihad Stadium.

“We really want to finish the season off well," Brogan said after the match. "We want to finish off well for the club and for our supporters, but we really want Matty to stay around and we need to show the club and the board members that we want to play under him.

“Today didn’t reflect that, so as a leadership group, we need to make sure that we get everyone and get ready for a big week.

"We need to get over it, acknowledge that we got smashed - not hide from it - and front up and train well.”

Brogan gave full credit to the Saints who were unstoppable on the day, but didn’t hide his disappointment at what his team had delivered.

“They jumped us from the start and we just couldn’t get our game going, but on the flip side maybe we didn’t show up to play as we have over the last couple of weeks,” he said.

“We’ve had a real busy month. We were pretty competitive against Collingwood, were competitive against the Bulldogs, then beat Adelaide and Hawthorn and we just had a really down day for whatever reason. We may as well have stayed at home.

“We just got smashed by a very, very good side. They’ve been under the pump but they really showed why they’re sitting in third and we’re 13th.”

Brogan agreed the team had been feeding off the emotion of sending off a club favourite in Mark Williams and then playing for a new coach - a situation that was not sustainable long-term.

“The dust has definitely settled and the emotion has gone,” he said.

“We need to really show up over the next three weeks and really fight it out.”