PORT ADELAIDE SANFL coach Matthew Lokan has commended his leaders after his side survived a late scare from West Adelaide on Sunday to win by 13 points.

Away from home on a muddy Richmond Oval, Port led by 27 points midway through the second term before the Bloods mounted a comeback and led in the third quarter.

But Lokan was thrilled with the way his experienced players stood up and guided his side to victory.

“I thought our leaders were fantastic. [Tom] Clurey, [Hamish] Hartlett], Tyson [Goldsack] and Matt Appleton, our experienced players really stood up and were a big reason why we won,” Lokan said after the game.

The Port Adelaide coach added he was pleased with his side’s consistency across the game.

“I think that's something we've been searching for now for probably the last month or so is to be more consistent and be able to produce winnable footy over four quarters,” he said.

“We knew that Westies were always coming.

“That's been a real strength of Brad [Gotch] and his team is to be able to be competitive, and they worked their way back into the game in the third quarter, but it was nice to be able to hold on and get a really important win in the context of our season."

Port had nine AFL-listed players amongst its ranks on Sunday and Lokan saw it as an opportunity for the contracted squad to get some more games.

“I think we look at it as a positive,” he said.

“Obviously, we've had a few injuries, probably for the whole season to be fair, but to only play nine and a couple of the boys were in isolation from coming back from Melbourne.

“We were a little bit light on in regard to AFL-listed players, but I think that's probably the most pleasing thing from the win today is that all of our guys contributed.

“Young [Oliver] Cheesman came in and played first game and I thought he was fantastic, Simon Wong came back into the team and had 17 possessions.

“The guys that haven't been playing for us were able to come in and fill those spots of those listed guys and I was really proud of their effort today.”

Xavier Duursma was incredible with 27 touches and two goals and Lokan commended the young star’s game.

“I spoke to him before the game and said 'you haven't forgotten how to play, you just needed a run last week' and I thought he was outstanding today,” he said.

“I thought he really set the tone not only in that first quarter, but for the whole game.

“He was tough on the inside and he found his legs. Credit to the young lad, he's missed a lot of footy to be able to come back here and have an impact on the game like he did under a heavy tag.”

The Magpies had nine different goalkickers for the day and Lokan said it was good to have different avenues.

“We probably don't have that big key forward up in the forward line that's been able to produce a bucket of goals for us,” he said.

“We rely a lot on Dylan Williams who's six foot and pretty much a small forward so to be able to share that load a bit today was really important for us and it was nice to get a good spread of goalkickers.”

Now one win off third spot but still sitting sixth, the Magpies take on undefeated Glenelg next week and Lokan is looking forward to the challenge.

“I think they've obviously been the form side of the competition for the whole year and obviously undefeated, so we get a free swing and them next week and go into a bye with the three games after that,” Lokan said.

“Hopefully we can obviously win enough to be able to play finals.”