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AAP
AAP
Steve Larkin

Port plan to rapidly move on from flop against Swans

Dejected Port Adelaide players leave the field after their loss to Sydney. (Matt Turner/AAP PHOTOS)

Most AFL coaches loathe five-day breaks between games.

Port Adelaide's next match can't come quickly enough for Ken Hinkley.

The Power, after slipping to a 19-point home loss to Sydney, next meet Carlton in what looms as a late-June elimination final.

Port enter Thursday night's fixture at Adelaide Oval in 12th spot with 24 premiership points - the same as 10th-placed Carlton.

Both clubs are reeling from defeats on Saturday, and both clubs, with another loss, risk sliding four wins outside the top eight.

Port
Sam Powell-Pepper and Esava Ratugolea after the Power's home defeat to the Swans. (Matt Turner/AAP PHOTOS)

"We've got an opportunity to play again Thursday night, that's what we've got to do," Hinkley said after Sydney's 9.17 (71) to 7.10 (52) triumph.

"We have got to move quickly past today and understand that it wasn't at a level that we have been for the last two weeks - and get our heads back into Thursday night really quickly.

"That's where we'll spend our time."

Port had won successive games before their flop against Sydney, when Hinkley said his players failed to cope with the opposition's heat.

"Their pressure was really strong early, and once you create that mindset in the opposition you can make some more perceived mistakes," he said.

"We couldn't take the territory we needed to at the right time.

"Again, that comes back to the pressure the opposition put us under to not be able to clear that initial bubble. 

"If you don't clear that initial bubble, you're going to find it really hard to get a number of (attacking) entries."

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