Fremantle coach Mark Harvey has predicted a possible rule change to stamp out what he calls the "surrender" tactic of slowing the play to scotch opposition momentum.

The Dockers were, on several occasions, left standing and waiting on Saturday night by Port Adelaide's inclination to slow the game down whenever they felt it was slipping away from them or near the end of a quarter.

Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams has long defended the tactic, but the unanimous booing of the Power's home crowd illustrated why the league could look into a way of stopping it, as they did with deliberate rushed behinds.

"Well it certainly frustrates the crowd, doesn't it?" Harvey said.

"I think everyone's aware of it, I think in time what will happen is the AFL might clamp down on it - it's ... holding up the play, which in my mind is a little bit of surrendering.

"We just introduced the rushed behind (free kick) which is surrendering, isn't it? So if they put the ball above their head are they surrendering ball movement? Maybe, and that's up to the AFL.

"Everyone tries to do it at stages, now whether you've got momentum and you're trying to stop the opposition from getting back into the game or you're just trying to run out the quarter, everyone does it."

Williams admitted the use of the slow-down late in the first had been initiated by the players, perhaps as an after-effect of two bad losses prior to their 24-point win over the Dockers.

"I didn't choose to do it at all," he said.

"The players have a view of when the end of a quarter might be and they were thinking - it's a lot more difficult out there than it is sitting in the stands where I am.

"One of the experienced players would've said 'this is the feeling', there probably was two or three little handball turnovers or something so hey let's stop this, let's regroup at quarter-time, so they would've called it."

When weighing up the usefulness of slowing the play down as against its ugliness, Williams asked supporters to consider the final result.

"As much as the supporters may not like it at that minute, in the end I'm sure they're happy we won," je said.

"We don't want to play that way, I guarantee it, it's not our favourite way of playing but it is another way of playing that just might take a bit of steam out of the opposition - that's the only reason any team does it."

Port's difficult fixtures against the Western Bulldogs and Geelong over the next two weeks will be taken on without young midfielder Travis Boak, who could be out for more than a month with a medial ligament problem.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP