Port Adelaide coach Matthew Primus says a glorified tin rattle is crucial for his club to rise above the poverty line and compete with the AFL's big spenders.

Primus said Port was playing "catch-up" to the competition's wealthy by lacking funds to spend on recruiting, development and medical areas.

The Power on Tuesday appealed for donations from supporters in the next phase of a $3 million debt reduction campaign.

Primus said Port, which has erased $1.1 million of its core debt this year but is on the bottom of the AFL ladder, must spend more on football operations.

"We are well aware of our ability and need to invest heavily in our football department," Primus said.

"We are playing catch-up, along with a lot of other clubs.

"We want to make sure we can do what we can to make our players the best players, and be able to look them in the eye and say 'yes, we're giving you the best chance'."

Port rank among the league's lowest in football department spending, currently about $4 million behind premiers Collingwood.

"We would like to increase our development area with our football coaching staff," Primus said.

"Our medical fitness area, we need to increase that ... our recruiting, we need to invest more in that.

"We are not looking to be the best spending team in that area, but we just want to be a mid-table team.

"We know we need to spend more in a lot of areas but we can't do it straight away."

But Primus said despite the club's lack of spending, his players - winners just once from nine games this season - could still reach their potential at Port.

"They can be (the best they can be)," he said.

"We just want to give them every opportunity to give them what the best clubs in the competition are doing at the moment and there are probably 14, 15 other clubs trying to do exactly the same.

"That is the path we are heading down.

"We're comfortable with where we're at now but we know every yeargets harder and harder and you have got to get better and better and that is what we are striving towards."

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