Port Adelaide SANFL coach Matthew Lokan said Sunday’s 49-point loss to ladder leaders, Glenelg was a great learning experience for his young side.

“We use a game like that as an educational tool,” he said.

“A lot of our guys are young and haven’t played a lot of football so we try to teach them what they need to do in different aspects of the game and there is plenty of areas we need to work on after a day like today.

“We were disappointing today, credit to Glenelg they played some good footy, they were cleaner than us, they used the ball really well and we weren’t able to match it.

“It is certainly a great learning tool (to play on experienced forwards Liam McBean and Cory Gregson) - we go out there every week to win but if we don’t win then we think we can take some real benefit out of playing on guys like that.

“If you go through the Glenelg forward line, McBean, Gregson and Luke Partington have all played AFL footy so it is a great learning tool for our guys.”

Lokan took a five-goal last quarter, and a successful return from Hamish Hartlett as key positives out of the match.

“It was great for our group, Hamish brings that leadership that we need - you go through the rest of the back line and they are all young and inexperienced and to have Harts out there marshalling the troops is certainly a positive for us,” he said.

Lokan said he was a proud coach during the week when ruckman Peter Ladhams was called into the AFL side to make his debut against Hawthorn on Saturday after impressing in the SANFL.

“I was wrapped for Pete, he has been outstanding for us during the first part of the season and got his opportunity down in Tassie, he has things he has to work on but for him to play his first AFL game is great for him,” he said.

“We have had Ladhams, Billy Frampton, Kane Farrell, Joel Garner, Todd Marshall, Aidyn Johnson, Joe Atley and Willem Drew all gone in and played some solid AFL footy.

“That makes me feel good as a coach and working with those guys during the week to play at the highest level is certainly a reward for effort.”