Port Adelaide dispensed both good news and bad to their supporters on Monday.

The good news concerned key players Kane Cornes (AC shoulder joint) and Steve Salopek (dislocated shoulder), with their injuries not as serious as first feared.

Cornes and Salopek may now only miss a week or two each after both appeared likely to be sidelined considerably longer having picked up the injuries in Saturday's five-point loss to North Melbourne.

But the bad news was a little more disconcerting, as assistant coach Justin Cripps said the club's match committee were no closer to understanding why the Power's performances lurch from one extreme to another.

A week after putting it all together to thump the Crows, Port were laziness personified in the first half against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium, allowing the unfancied Kangaroos to streak away to a 31-point half-time lead.

They battled back in the second half, and ultimately fell only a goal short of a fortunate victory, but the questions of the first half remained.

Asked to ponder this, Cripps was left to conclude that Port were not the only team struggling to find their best on a regular basis.

"I reckon if you look at the competition, apart from Geelong and St Kilda we're like everyone else," Cripps said.

"At the moment, we're probably a fair way off (Geelong and St Kilda). In saying that, on any given day we think we have the personnel to be competitive against those teams, if we bring the right level of intensity and effort from all 22 players.

"The ladder if you look at it says a fair bit, and if you go through every team apart from Geelong and St Kilda you're going to find it's inconsistent, and if anyone's got the answers out there, well we're happy to listen."

Cripps reasoned that Port have 35 players eligible for selection, but baulked at the suggestion that wholesale changes might shake the team up to get an improved level of effort.

"We're certainly not going to tolerate too many inconsistent performances, but in saying that, the week before against the Crows we thought we had 22 players that performed to the level that we expect," he said.

"On the weekend, we didn't get that in the first half. We got it in the second half, so we'll keep working through that and if players are inconsistent for too long a period, they'll go out of the side."

Meanwhile, youngster Hamish Hartlett should resume training after a hamstring complaint, but centreman Shaun Burgoyne is still a month away from his return.

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