PORT ADELAIDE coach Matthew Lokan has conceded the club’s young midfielders might need some senior support after his side’s 36-point loss to Norwood on Saturday afternoon.

The loss sees Port lose touch with the SANFL top five with five games remaining.

Coach Matthew Lokan was frustrated by a poor start which allowed the Redlegs to have 11 scoring shots in the first quarter.

“We weren't good enough,” he said after the game at Alberton Oval.

“At the end of the day, Norwood were able to compete for longer than us and you can't give a team like them a start and be -13 in clearances by half-time.

“If you do that, you're not going to win many games and credit to Norwood, they were far stronger than us around the ball and they capitalised going forward.

“I think they scored eight goals from turnover, we definitely made some mistakes with the footy, but at the end of the day, we probably shouldn't be playing the ball in our back half.

“Our game's based around winning the clearance and winning the contest.”

Lokan admitted some further experience into the midfield would be beneficial after captain Cam Sutcliffe’s shoulder injury and Sam Mayes’ elevation to the AFL side robbed Port of two of its more consistent performers.

“We need to look at our structure,” he said. “To our guys' defence we do have a lot of young guys that do well through that midfield spot.

“We probably are a midfielder or two short, Sam Mayes played a lot of midfield for us before he's gone up to the AFL side and we've had to throw Hammer [Hamish Hartlett] in there who's naturally a half-back flanker.

“We still need to learn and grow our younger guys, like Jackson Mead, Jed McEntee, Ethan Moore and Sean Samblich. They need to continue to grow in there.”

Port will next face West Adelaide at Richmond Oval next Sunday.