PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley says Greater Western Sydney defender Phil Davis was too close to Power forward Chad Wingard when he prevented a goal in Sunday night's 22-point loss to the Giants at Adelaide Oval.

With the Power trailing by 10 points at the 15-minute mark of the last quarter, Wingard was awarded a free kick in the right-hand pocket when Giants veteran Heath Shaw was penalised for deliberately rushing the ball through for a behind.

Wingard snapped the ball through the goals, but Davis, who was standing on the side, got his hands to the ball.

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"If the man on the mark's not three metres away when Chad's having a snap, maybe we get a goal," Hinkley told reporters.

"The rules would say something along the lines of you have to be 10m.

"I thought Phil was very close to Heath on the mark, that's all I thought.

"It was a big moment for us.

"Whether the free kick (for deliberate rushed behind) was there or not, but you've paid the free kick, you've got to get the opportunity to do what you need to do.

"I think Chad might have moved a step on the kick."

Hinkley believed the Shaw decision was correct, saying he was under no pressure and rushed the ball through for a point.

Giants coach Leon Cameron said it was a difficult call to make.

"They're hard to judge, because you've got to judge line, player, how close the opposition are, and if it's the right free, it's the right free," Cameron said.

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Hinkley said he would consider calling in back-up ruckmen Billy Frampton or Peter Ladhams for next Sunday's game with the Western Bulldogs in Ballarat.

The Power started with key forward Charlie Dixon in the ruck before going with defender Dougal Howard, and midfielders Ollie Wines and Brad Ebert, in the second half.

"We'd like to see another ruckman come in and play, but we're battling with that a little bit," Hinkley said.

"Maybe it's worth going for it because at the moment some of our challenges have been pretty clear.

"I'm not going to predict here tonight that we're going to change our rucks off the back of one game tonight because we were right in the game."

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The Power were beaten convincingly in clearances 53-29 as Giants ruckman Dawson Simpson (46 hit-outs) gave his side silver service.

"We've won games this year without a dominant ruck," Hinkley said.

"Some of our contest stuff in tight when you've got a losing ruck as bad as we did, we're allowing them to get too much free run at it.

"Some of our inside stoppage work needed to be a bit more brutal I would've thought than we did."