Travis Boak on the bottom of the pack in Perth.

DEFIANT Port Adelaide captain Travis Boak has slammed the loss to Fremantle as “not acceptable’’ and vowed that the players will return from their bye week with renewed hunger and ready to attack the second half of the season.

Boak said the team hasn’t given up on 2016, despite sitting two wins and percentage out of the top eight, and that the players will ask questions of themselves and each other and “really look in the mirror’’ before their next game against Richmond at Adelaide Oval on Friday, July 1.

Boak denied Port had an identity crisis but declared the players had let the tradition of the club down with their insipid display against the Dockers in a loss that has put it behind the win-loss ledger at 6-7 and seriously damaged its finals hopes.

The Power players will be given four days off from tomorrow to Saturday to recharge their batteries — and regain their hunger — before returning for training on Sunday.

“The biggest thing for us and what we’ve built ourselves on is our competitiveness and hunger and that probably on the weekend, from watching the game, it looked like Freo wanted it more,’’ Boak said.

“That was really disappointing because that’s what Port Adelaide is built on — being desperate and hungry.

“That’s what we need to bring and the players understand that. We just need to make sure we’re consistent, really look in the mirror and come back and understand how we have to play.’’

The Power spent Monday in major soul-searching mode with Boak declaring: “With the bye coming up we’ve got some stuff to talk about.’’

The skipper said Port had undone a lot of the good work from its previous four matches when it thumped Melbourne and Collingwood and lost narrowly to top-eight sides West Coast and Western Bulldogs.

“To take a step back like we did was really disappointing,’’ Boak said.

“So we’ve discussed what we expect for the rest of the season as a playing group because the performance on the weekend wasn’t acceptable.

“Freo brought the heat and we weren’t able to match it and that was the most disappointing thing, that with so much on the line we weren’t able to take it up to them. So we’ve got to ask ourselves what actually happened? That’s the hard question we’re asking and demanding of each other because at Port Adelaide we cannot have a performance like that and people questioning our effort.’’