PORT Adelaide coach Mark Williams described the 24-point loss to the Crows as a “reality check” for the young Power team.

Coming off two good wins, the Power were confident going into the game, but looked a far different side to last week out on the park. Williams said the result was a fair indication of where his side is at.

“You get disappointed that, gee, it’s not as good as you might hope, so it was a bit of a reality check and a kick in the bum," Williams said.

"We’ve been pretty good for a couple of months now and we did everything we could to freshen our players up, so this week we need to get back to some hard work.”

Williams acknowledged the tactics of the Adelaide coaching staff but identified Port Adelaide’s inability to finish in front of goal as the difference between the two sides.

“I thought Adelaide played very smart. They made the most of their opportunities and our scoreboard didn’t put any pressure on them at all,” Williams said.

“Towards the end of the third quarter, I thought we were back in the game with a chance but I didn’t think we took the opportunities early in the last quarter. I think we had the first two scoring shots and they took it from the kick out and kicked a goal from the boundary line.”

The Port Adelaide coach put the result into perspective and said the game was a stepping stone in the Power’s path to rebuilding a premiership-contending squad.

“If you look at the scheme of where we were last year, they finished on top and we were 12th and it was always going to be a big hill for us to climb.

“We’re on the way but we’re certainly not there yet. We’re two and one like Adelaide and are preparing to play Collingwood and we’ll want to play better than that next week.”

The Power had more of the ball than the Crows but failed to capitalise on the scoreboard.

Port Adelaide was kept goalless in the first term, booting eight behinds before Shaun Burgoyne slotted through the Power’s first goal at the seven-minute mark of the second quarter.

“We won the clearances which is terrific. To go inside 50 more than them is fantastic but we need to be more productive than what we were today,” Williams said.

“I think we dropped five marks inside 50 that, given the circumstances of where Adelaide was, given the opportunities you have to take those chances and even our snaps on goals were ordinary compared to what they have been.”

Port Adelaide was frustrated by an Adelaide side intent on flooding the Power backline.

Williams said it was a tactic he expected but a game plan Port Adelaide would have to deal with better in the future.

“When we went inside 50, they probably had nine players in there, which meant that we were kicking from a fair way out or we were under a lot of pressure trying to make decisions going inside 50.

“We appreciated what they were going to do but they did it better than our plans to counteract them.”

“They’ve (Adelaide) done it (flooding) before to us. They tried to do it in Round 21 last year but we did it a little bit better (at counteracting it) then and we need to continue to work on it and be better.”

“We were trying to win the game by playing players up the ground and if we got a turnover there, they were back there by themselves so I think the crowd appreciated we were trying to win the game rather than sit back inside their forward 50.”

Williams eased Warren Tredrea into the game, rotating the captain with forward Damon White through both centre-half and full-forward.

Tredrea kicked a goal and took a magnificent one-handed mark in the goal square against Adelaide full-back Ben Rutten.

“He probably did better than I thought he would. That’s a fact. It was good to get it (first game back) out of the way and he’ll build from there and get some confidence from playing AFL footy under that sort of pressure. Playing on an All-Australian for a lot of the time was good experience for him,” Williams said.

Port Adelaide was inaccurate against the Kangaroos last week, registering 20 behinds but unlike today, it didn’t affect the outcome of the game. Williams said it was an area the Power would have to improve on in a hurry.

“If you look at the stats for goalkicking I think our set shots were pretty good. On the run, I think we kicked one goal five (behinds) and then those snapshots were three points so that’s one goal eight (behinds).”

“The on the run shots and also the snapshots stand out as the things that cost us and the Crows marked the ball inside 50 and we certainly didn’t.”

Williams refused to make excuses for the loss that included in-form ruckman Dean Brogan with an ankle sprain and speedster Danyle Pearce who withdrew before the game.

“Danyle (Pearce) does run the ball and make some good decisions, so that’s disappointing but I wouldn’t want to stack up the players we had out to who they had out.”