PORT Adelaide coach Matthew Primus has challenged his mid-tier players to lift the AFL club from the doldrums.

The Power open their premiership campaign with a home clash against St Kilda on Sunday determined to rebound from their worst ever season in 2011.

Port won just three games last year, and Primus said he would be reliant on a middle core of players for the club to rise this season.

"As a club, we would all love to take a quantum leap," Primus said.

"But we're going to take small steps to get to where we want to get too.

"There is no doubt players who have been here five, six, seven years - we need to them to really step up and become top quality players for us."

Primus said Port's inexperienced players, and the senior core, also needed to improve.

"What we're focused on is getting players from [captain] Dom Cassisi down to [rookie] Chad Wingard to develop and improve this year," he said.

"And if we can do that, we'll be a real good team. If we don't, we will struggle."

Wingard will be one of four new Port players in their twilight fixture against the Saints, joining debutant ruckman Jarrad Redden and recruits Brad Ebert (West Coast) and John McCarthy (Collingwood).

The quartet will bolster a midfield that Primus said was developing quickly.

"They're more developed, they understand each other a lot more and that is only going to continue," he said of his midfielders.

"McCarthy and Ebert have added a bit of depth to it and every other player has had another year under their belt. There are more guys to go through there and we're confident in their ability."

Sunday's AAMI Stadium encounter marks the premiership season coaching debut of St Kilda's Scott Watters, with Primus expecting his counterpart to employ subtle changes to the Saints.

"They have slightly changed," Primus said.

"Their structures are a little bit different and the way they move the ball is a little bit different.

"But how hard they are to win the ball against, how defensively good they are, I don't think that will change at all.

"They have got some outstanding players, and what is good for them I suppose is that a lot of their young players have been their best over the pre-season ... we have got to make sure those blokes don't get under our guard."