PORT Adelaide coach Matthew Primus says his club won't follow the same line as Richmond and hit the reset button on their season, claiming another loss would effectively rule out finals football.
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said his team's season "starts now" after their 10-point loss to West Coast last weekend but, ahead of their clash on Sunday at AAMI Stadium, Primus said the Power didn't agree with that mentality.
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Another loss would see the Power's record slip to 1-5 and Primus said such a start would make it hard to finish in the top eight.
"I think history would say 'yeah, it is' (too hard), but things change very quickly in a week," he said.
"We played Collingwood two weeks ago and everybody was saying they're not going to make finals, they're not going to make the top four and they can't win a flag and I think their form has held up pretty good since then.
"It makes life more difficult, but we're worried about the process of how we're going about playing our footy and we weren't happy with our last quarter last week."
Primus called on Brent Renouf and Daniel Stewart to step up as ruckmen on Sunday with the Power sitting dead last in the League in hitouts.
He said Stewart was a "definite" starter for the Power, replacing the injured Jay Schulz and would support Renouf in the ruck.
Despite the midfield proving successful in gaining clearances without a dominant ruckman, Primus said it was time for his tall timber to prove their worth.
"We've been beaten in the ruck all year…there's not one, clear, stand-out guy in good form," he said.
"We know Jarrad (Redden) can sustain it for a certain period of time and Brent has been able to sustain it longer and longer over the last two weeks.
"We think he's slowly getting better to match fitness and we're expecting a big game out of Brent this week, he's got to play better than what he has."
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Primus said that despite only registering the one win this season, Richmond's midfield made it a dangerous outfit.
He singled out the form of Trent Cotchin, Dustin Martin, Brett Deledio, Shaun Grigg and Chris Newman as proof of the side's ability.
He said the key to victory for the Power would be to subdue Richmond's midfield, and to fight the game out to the very end.
"Their best players are playing some good footy which is why they've nearly got over the line over the last month," he said.
"Their onball group is pretty good, they bat pretty deep in there now, so I think that's what's going to make them pretty dangerous and what we're going to have to worry about.
"We need to get back to what was holding us in good stead and what gets us back into games … if we can stick it out longer, we'll get that result we're after with the win."
Harry Thring covers Port Adelaide news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry
