PORT Adelaide midfielder Travis Boak is at a loss to explain the club’s dismal away record this season.

The Power have just one victory outside AAMI stadium this season, the latest  loss being a 15-point defeat to the Lions at the Gabba on Saturday night.

Boak says Port Adelaide's ten-goal first quarter showed they were ready for the contest.

“You can’t really put it down to preparation,” Boak said.

“We think we’re doing everything right, our preparation has been fantastic and then to come down and kick ten goals in the first quarter we must have been doing something right.”

Boak led from the front with a game-high 32 disposals and five inside-50s.

But he says turnovers and poor skills cost them.

“I probably fumbled a bit too much tonight and I think we did too around stoppages, we let it out too easily,” Boak said.

Boak said they simply stopped running after quarter time.

The 21-year-old midfielder would not blame fatigue or the travel factor, saying the Lions were battling an injury crisis of their own with Cheynee Stiller (concussion), Daniel Merrett (hamstring) and Mitch Clark (dehydration) spending lengthy periods on the bench.

“They were two players down and they had more run than us so it was definitely a mental thing, which was very disappointing,” Boak said.

“We probably didn’t run hard enough and the 50-50 balls we were winning in the first quarter just dropped off in the next three quarters which was really disappointing and that cost us in the end.”

Boak paid tribute to the work of defender Alipate Carlile who limited Jonathan Brown’s opportunities but couldn’t prevent his accurate kicking (4.1)

But weight of inside-50s, which the Lions won 54 to 43, proved telling in the end.

“In the end it was just too hard for them (Port defenders); the amount of ball they were getting,” Boak said.

Boak will be hoping Fremantle can keep his team's slim finals chances alive with a won over Essendon on Sunday, but believes the Power were their own worst enemy when it came to the prospect of featuring in the September action.

“We’ve pretty much killed our chances tonight with the performance,” he said.

“You can't rely on other teams to lose to make finals so it’s pretty disappointing.”