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Port Adelaide's Brownlow medallist Ollie Wines says the pain of his club's final exit was so raw that he couldn't watch the AFL grand final.

Port Adelaide's Brownlow medallist Ollie Wines couldn't watch the AFL grand final.

He was still stinging from the Power's preliminary final disaster two weeks before the premiership decider.

"It was still a little bit raw for me," Wines said.

"I haven't been able to look at too much footy.

"I have been off social media and everything just to sort of escape that.

"We have summed up and reviewed our season now and particularly that prelim, so we have moved on to 2022 from here."

"That prelim" was Port's 71-point loss to the Western Bulldogs, who were in turn crunched by Melbourne by 74 points in the grand final.

Wines, who on Thursday night won his first best and fairest award with the Power, echoed the words at the function of his coach Ken Hinkley.

"As Ken said, don't define us by that preliminary final loss or last year's loss to Richmond," he said, referring to Port's six-point defeat to the Tigers in a preliminary final last year.

"Our body of work over the last two years of winning the most home and away games out of anyone and getting in a position to get home prelims is really super.

"We have got a lot of upside and opportunity amongst our group and we still think we are going to be competing (for the flag) for five to 10 years."

Wines cited the character of his teammates as a reason to keep believing.

"That has been a focus of the club's recruiting over the last five or 10 years, not just recruiting footballers but good people," he said.

"We rate character over ability and producing good humans because that creates a really connected and humble group.

"We have got full faith in our group. We are getting better, we are definitely not over the cliff.

"We have got so much young talent ... we have got so much upside."

Wines was a co-captain of the Power in 2019 with Tom Jonas, who took over the leadership role solely last year.

But the 26-year-old Wines said he would welcome a return to the captaincy.

"It's not so much a goal but if it is something that happens, it's for a reason, it's I'm the best person to lead the club at the time," he said.

"And that is what happened when Tom and I were dual captains and when he took over he was the best person.

"So if that does happen, I'd be privileged and proud to take that.

"I would welcome it with open arms if I am the guy to lead the club because I want success as much as anyone."