Port Adelaide coach Matthew Primus is confident the AFL club can persuade key defenders Alipate Carlile and Jackson Trengove not to leave at the end of the season.

The Power coach acknowledges Carlile, 24, and Trengove, 20, both from Victoria, have broached the idea of heading elsewhere.

"(They) are definitely thinking about it, they've got strong family connections, but as a football club we'd like to think we can override that and hopefully in the next month or so we will," Primus told the Nine Network's AFL Footy Show on Thursday night.

He was hopeful the pair's friendships at Port would help sway them to stay and he had also tried to convince them the Power was improving as a football club.

"When you have a great culture at a club and mateship at a club, that usually rings true more than the dollars, even though we know the landscape's changing," Primus said.

"With Jackson and Alipate Carlile we're really keen to keep them and I had a good meeting with them last week, but that will play out over the next month.

"But I think all interstate clubs struggle with this, half your list are going to be interstate and half are going to be local, so you have that problem every year.

"But we're working pretty hard on those two and we've shown them a clear path on where we're going to be next year and in two years' time."

Primus said the Power would bolster their coaching and fitness departments next season, with the help of the $9 million, three-year support package recently announced by the AFL.

He admitted they had been "under-resourced" this season and acted too late last year to get the coaching group they wanted in place.

"We want to get a great group of assistant coaches together and beef up our medical and fitness departments. They're the two areas we really need to improve," Primus said.

"The first thing is, make sure we've got a great group of assistant coaches and development coaches, because we are going tobe a real young list next year."

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