New Port Adelaide captain Domenic Cassisi is confident the team remains focused on round one of the AFL season, despite this week's troubling financial news.

It has emerged that the Power have applied to the AFL for financial assistance and are working with the SANFL on their AAMI Stadium deal.

Cassisi said the club's administration had kept the players informed on developments and it is up to the team to help the club with a strong start to the year.

"From a players' perspective, we need to worry about our preparation on the field and I'm sure if we have a good start to the year, that will help things," he said.

"The club has been open with us about the whole situation and it's just about us as a club getting a good stadium deal, so that moving forward the club is profitable and we're around for a long, long time.

"There's been no mention from the club about players taking cuts, I don't think it's going to get to that stage at all.

"It's just important that the club keeps us informed of what's going on and they've done that, from a players' point of view we listen, we trust the people upstairs."

Cassisi is in his first year as captain and says he is relishing the responsibility.

He had one of the more interesting starts to a captaincy, when coach Mark Williams admitted at the media conference to announce the appointment that Cassisi was not his first choice as skipper.

But the onballer insists there are no problems.

"It's been going really well, I've been at the club for eight or nine years ... 'Chocco' has been my coach the whole time," he said.

"He's been a massive part of my development and from the moment he told me I got the job, he explained to me the whole situation.

"It's fine, we're working well together, obviously with other leaders as well, we're a strong group at the moment."

Port will be one of the more interesting teams this year, after finishing runners-up in 2007 and then plummeting last season to 13th.

They blew a couple of big leads in games last year and this cruelled their season.

But they have impressed during this pre-season, winning three out of four games.

"We got ourselves in some really good positions last year and let it slip," Cassisi said.

"It's hard to put your finger on one particular thing that it might be.

"Is it a mental thing? Is it our mental toughness? Is it part of our game plan we need to improve? We think we've addressed all those things over the summer, we've had a really hard pre-season.

"We go in with a bit of confidence, we're looking forward to making amends for last year."

Port will open their regular season when they play Essendon at home on Sunday, March 29.

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