PORT Adelaide defender Jasper Pittard is in doubt for the club's season opener against Sydney after injuring his left hamstring against Richmond.

Pittard, 25, hurt himself in the second quarter when running into the forward line and pulled up lame. He sat out the rest of the contest and Power coach Ken Hinkley expected it would be a standard hamstring strain, putting the defender's position for the March 25 round one clash in jeopardy.

"A normal hamstring, I'd imagine, but we'll have to look at it and scan it. You'd assume that it's 3-4 weeks," Hinkley said.

Pittard made the All Australian squad of 40 last year but Matthew Broadbent (hamstring) could replace him in the side, with Hinkley certain Broadbent would be ready for round one, barring a setback. 

Chad Wingard copped a corkie to his right thigh but Hinkley said there was no reason to be concerned.

Port conceded six goals in a disappointing second quarter and effectively lost the match in that term, with Hinkley scathing of his players' effort. 

"It frustrates us, that's what it does, because we're still doing some of the mistakes that we've been doing," he said. 

"The turnover stuff, we continue to challenge ourselves there and we play a quarter where it's unacceptable football. People didn't play at the level they should play at in that quarter, and we get punished badly.

"It goes on for 15-20 minutes – too long."

After missing finals for two straight years, Port looked to make changes to its game plan. Hinkley said his side had changed too much in some ways, and needed to rectify that issue. The wind on Sunday in Mount Gambier meant players often struggled to hit their targets. 

"If you look at our game today, we were a bit too straight-line at times again," he said.

"We understand the conditions here today made it a bit challenging to one side but we've got to be better than that."

Hinkley was enthused about ruckman Paddy Ryder's performance. The big man was missed all of 2016 due to a WADA-imposed doping ban and struggled around the ground, with just five disposals to his name, but was at times able to dominate Toby Nankervis in the ruck. 

"Much better at centre bounce. He's one-and-a-half games back and I think that's the thing for us to remember," Hinkley said of Ryder.

"We're getting him going and we're trying to figure it out still a little bit and we've got plenty to do."