PORT ADELAIDE will head back to the drawing board to address its road woes and the inconsistency that has dogged its up and down year, according to ruckman Brendon Lade.

The Power's 42-point loss to Fremantle on Sunday was their seventh consecutive loss on the road this season, and the eighth time this year that they have followed a win with a loss the following week.

The club has managed consecutive wins just once (rounds three and four), and has won just one game away from AAMI Stadium. Despite their inconsistency and road woes, the Power remains in eighth spot after round 19, half a game ahead of Essendon.

Lade said something would have to change with the finals just three games away.

"We can't put our finger on why we're not performing on the road at the moment," he said from Perth on Monday morning. 

"It's something we're working on as a club. We'll go back to the drawing board, and when we play on the road [next] we’ll try something a bit different.

"The coaches will probably look at everything. They'll look at personnel as well as the days we travel and whether we come a couple of days before or come the day of (the game), depending on what's best for the team.

"They'll work it out, we'll try something different, and hopefully it works."

At the top of Lade's hit list of things to work on this week was mindset and work rate – two things the ruckman said were lacking against a hungry Fremantle at Subiaco Oval.

"Fremantle wanted it more than we did at the start, and something we need to address is our effort and our want at the start of the game," he said.

"Just the guys' mindset, get their minds right, in the right place and ready to play football and be competitive."

Lade said the only positive the Power players could take out of Sunday's debacle was their final quarter form.

With the game effectively over, Port Adelaide kicked five of the last six goals to reduce a game high 66-point margin to 42 points at the final siren.

"You can see in the last in the last quarter when we hit targets and play our style of footy we can play good football," Lade said.

"We just need to do it for four quarters."

Mark Williams' men return to AAMI Stadium to take on Carlton on Sunday, and Lade said the Blues' on-ballers would need to be shut down after their dashing 35-point win over Geelong last Friday.  
 
"They play some great footy and they’ve got some great midfielders," Lade said.

"We'll have to look at match-ups and make sure we get them right.

"We're still in the fight for the finals, and hopefully we play some good footy in the next three weeks and get some momentum going into them.

"It's a nice comfort zone going back home, and hopefully we can get a win there."