He kicked an old-fashioned "helicopter punt" which almost missed the goals from 10 metres out, but Port Adelaide forward John Butcher has shown enough to suggest he's the future of the club.

Butcher has kicked 11 goals in his three AFL games including four in a seven-point loss to Essendon at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

The 197cm recruit from Maffra in country Victoria had 12 disposals and five marks against the Bombers. But it was his six tackles which brought a smile to the face of coach Matt Primus.

"'Butch' has given us something in the last three weeks," Primus said.

"We know he can mark the ball and kick goals. But I thought his pressure once the ball hits the ground was great for a big guy.

"Butcher's going to be important for us for the future like Jackson (Trengove) who has re-signed.

"We're working hard on (Alipate) Carlile and (Matthew) Lobbe. So hopefully in the next week we can have some good news in that regard.

"We've got a great young group of players who want to play a lot of footy together.

"I'm sure if we can get a few more over the line contract-wise ... I look forward to the journey with them."

Port are confident they can get off the bottom of the ladder with a round-24 win over Melbourne at Adelaide Oval next Sunday.

"Hopefully we get Broges (Dean Brogan) up forward for his farewell game," Primus said of the 32-year-old ruckman who has battled achilles and calf problems since round 13.

Primus said he wasn't bothered by media critics questioning the direction of the club after heavy losses in the past three weeks.

"We've all got our opinions. I'm only really concerned about the opinions of the board and our football department," he said.

"I'm not concerned about what commentators have said about how I am going to coach.

"I know exactly what path I am taking the club down and where we're heading.

"I suppose we are easy pickings when we're sitting down the bottom of the ladder and the result that we had last week.

"We are going to make sure we slowly build this club back slowly back up to where it should be.

"There's a lot of negativity in footy in South Australia at the moment in general and we're copping a fair bit of it."

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