PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley says he wasn't surprised to lose to the Western Bulldogs at Mars Stadium on Saturday afternoon, but he was shocked at the extent of the thrashing.

The Bulldogs and the Power both entered the clash with 4-3 win-loss record and sat eighth and ninth on the ladder, respectively. While it shaped as close encounter, it was anything but with the 90-point demolition by the Bulldogs taking Hinkley and the football world by surprise.

BULLDOGS v POWER Full match coverage and stats

"It's not a surprise that the Bulldogs were able to beat us. It's a surprise to me that we got beat so badly," Hinkley said in his post-match press conference.

"I thought they were in really good form coming in. They were certainly a game we were wary of how they were playing. Started OK, but once the game got away from us they grew in confidence.

"It's what happens in a game of football. They looked like they couldn't do anything wrong. We looked like we nearly couldn't do anything right."

The Power were blown away after leading at quarter-time, eventually going down by 15 goals.

"It's a huge number and one that we clearly are really disappointed in. We expected way better than that," Hinkley said.

"You have been better at that. In isolation we were really, really bad today."

The Power started their day winning the first 10 clearances of the match and kicked two of the first three goals. But after the first break, it all went downhill.

"They just got dominance around the ball. Their ruck (Tim English) certainly got dominant. It wasn't so much as hitouts, it was just his work rate around the ground and help join in the outnumber," Hinkley said.

"But then their quality of players, they were able to restrict a bit of us. (Tom) Liberatore, (Ed) Richards, (Marcus) Bontempelli - it's a pretty good group that they've got going through there. 

"They were able to get ascendancy in the game, they got territory, then they dominated the game."

The Power now sit 12th on the ladder with four wins and four losses and will come up against crosstown rival Adelaide next week in the Showdown.

Hinkley sees the blockbuster match as a positive for his side.

"The positive for us is there's a Showdown coming next week. That'll probably certainly help us get our heads back into the battle pretty quickly," he said.

For the Bulldogs, Saturday's win makes it three in a row in what's been an impressive start to the season. 

The Dogs have had some big victories, including last week's 32-point win over Greater Western Sydney, however Luke Beveridge rates Saturday's win against the Power as his side's best.

"You'd have to say so, yeah," Beveridge said post-match when he was asked if it was their best win so far.

"Came here today with both teams in a similar situation, a little bit of momentum, a little bit of belief bubbling up to the surface. 

"So after the start of it with 0-10 in clearance and our backs just being able to weather that storm, to get on top so emphatically was quite important. And then I think from then on it was really an even spread of contribution from so many."

Beveridge was asked whether he was tempted to sub out Adam Treloar given the margin, with the star mid playing his first game for the season after overcoming a calf injury.

"We came in wanting to make sure that Adam played a certain amount of game time and ultimately if you get into that frame of mind where you try and look after your players too much the sentiment can change to a degree," Beveridge said.

"So even though we were at a decent margin we gave up almost half a dozen goals and five goals at the end of last week's game so we wanted to play to the line and play to the last minute, not give them anything easy, so he didn't need extra minutes on the bench."

The Bulldogs will travel to Darwin next week to play an in-form Gold Coast at TIO Stadium on Saturday night.