PORT Adelaide coach Matthew Primus said the performance in the first three quarters had set the bar for his team for the rest of the season.

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"I can't question their effort, intensity or ability to stick to our structures and how we wanted to play tonight," he said.

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"The way we went about our footy was very good. The way we went about it against Adelaide was very good too, and that's what we have to do every week.

"Hawthorn is a very good team and we're going to come up against some more very good teams, but we're also going to come up against some teams that are where we're at in terms of our education and experience.

"If we play like that [the way we did against Hawthorn], we'll win some games of footy and clubs will actually respect the way we go about it."

The club is optimistic midfielder David Rodan has escaped serious injury and will miss only a month after injuring his right knee in the club's 32-point loss to Hawthorn at AAMI Stadium on Friday night.

Rodan has already endured three knee reconstructions in his 157-game career.

The 27-year-old underwent a traditional reconstruction on his right knee while playing for Richmond in 2005, and has also had two LARS (Ligament Augmentation Reconstructive System) procedures on his left knee, both in the last 18 months.

There were fears he'd suffered more damage to his right anterior cruciate ligament on Friday night when his knee twisted awkwardly in a tackle early in the third quarter.

He was helped from the ground by trainers and immediately substituted off.

Rodan cut a forlorn figure on the bench in the final term, requiring crutches to move around and with his knee heavily iced.

He will have scans over the weekend, but Primus said the early indications were that Rodan had suffered cartilage damage and not a potentially season-ending ACL injury.

"David's done some cartilage damage on his right knee, the one he did [had reconstructed] when he used to play for Richmond," Primus said after the game.

"We're pretty confident it's not an ACL injury. I think he's going in tomorrow to have the cartilage cleaned out and an arthroscope on that. He'll be out for a month or five weeks."

The Power has received heavy criticism following disappointing losses to lowly-ranked teams North Melbourne and Gold Coast in consecutive weeks.

Everything from the club's personnel and coaching set-ups to its culture has been questioned, but the home team's performance on Friday night went a little way towards silencing some of those critics.

The Power started brightly and led for most of the game, but the Hawks kicked away late in the third quarter, piling on eight of the last nine goals to record a comfortable win.

Veteran Chad Cornes was dropped for the clash with the Hawks, prompting speculation he should retire.

Primus scoffed at the suggestion, saying Cornes was "a chance" to add to his tally of 235 games this season.

"Chad has been a champion of our club and we'll make sure he gets the respect he deserves. It doesn't mean he gets to play every week, but we'll treat him well and make sure he goes about it in the right manner," he said.

"I couldn’t see Chad throwing in the towel after seven rounds. He's going to play a part for us. We're a young developing group with young key forwards who are going to get tired or injured, and he's going to play a role in that area."