PORT Adelaide coach Matthew Primus expects his position to come under fire following a performance he says deserves to be "bashed" by the media.

The Power were convincingly outplayed in the 37-point loss to Richmond on Sunday, placing the focus squarely on Primus.

Primus has a year left on his contract at Alberton, but a termination clause that can be activated at season's end hangs over his head.

"I'm feeling the heat that we haven't won, no doubt, and that we haven't got the rewards for what we think we've been able to do over the last month, but that comes with the job," Primus said after the match.

"I'm the coach of the club, our performances haven't been great so no worries, I expect to be under the spotlight.
 
"We'll get bashed this week and so be it, our performance dictates that."

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Primus, who has four wins from 28 matches since being appointed full-time coach, said his future at Port Adelaide lay with the speed at which the Power's list developed in 2012

"It will come down to how quickly we develop, that's all it is," he said.

"That will be what it will be … but I'm fully committed to developing this group as quickly as we can."

Despite describing his side's performance as "a step backwards" for the second week in a row, Primus was adamant he still believed in his squad, but admitted it was worse that Richmond's.

"Today we got exposed for where we're at … we're behind where Richmond are at the moment, that's what [the loss] tells us," Primus said.

"[But] I can see development by individuals, I can see development at periods of the time when we play, so yeah I've got full belief in the path we're heading down.

"I know that will set you up to "you're kidding yourself" to people from outside the club, but I am [confident]."

[ Related: Read the quarter by quarter match report ]

However Primus maintained the side could recover and progress in 2012.

"I've got full confidence that we'll be able to take a step forwards again and start marching towards where we want to go," he said.

"We just got beaten by a better team today.

"They were just too precise, too clean for us … today we got exposed for where we're at."

Power skipper Dom Cassisi said the match was lost in the second quarter, when Richmond piled on five goals to one.
 
"I think our second quarter was absolutely shocking," Cassisi said.

"We trained really well on Thursday, but it really counted for nothing in that first half.

"In the third quarter we were pretty fanatical with our approach … but until we can do it for four quarters we're going to really struggle."

Harry Thring cover Port Adelaide news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry