Coach reveals blueprint for Port’s success

Ken Hinkley showed the world his blueprint for Port Adelaide greatness in Sunday’s 46-point win against Fremantle, a victory that put the finishing touches on a solid foundation for this year’s premiership tilt.

Port cast aside pre-match talk of worrying slow starts to bulldoze the wayward Dockers in a frenzy of free-flowing footy that set up a 40-point quarter-time lead.

Karl Amon had a club record 16 first-quarter touches, Ollie Wines had three of his eight clearances and Aliir Aliir marshalled a defence that kept Fremantle goalless.

At the other end, the three-headed forward monster of Charlie Dixon, Mitch Georgiades and Todd Marshall terrorised an admittedly understrength backline.

As far as starts go it was near-perfect.

Now all Hinkley has to do is find a way to make it happen more often.

“I think it would be unreasonable to think that we could do that in every quarter, but that would be our blueprint,” Hinkley said.

“If we could play like that in two-and-a-half or three quarters in a game we know that would be mighty powerful and hard to stop.

“It’s enjoyable for our fans to watch and we’d love to play that way every quarter, but there’s some challenges with that.

“It’s a pretty irresistible style of football the way we played the first quarter, but we didn’t get it for four quarters.”

Hinkley has coached Port since 2013. (Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source:Getty Images

Despite some misfires along the way, the Power have reached the mid-point of the season with an 8-3 record, outside the top four by percentage.

It’s a start that should provide a solid launch pad for a premiership assault that will go up a notch when they emerge from next week’s bye.

“We’re certainly satisfied,” Hinkley said.

“I’m ever the optimist and I’d love to be 11-0, but we’ve put ourselves in the upper echelon of the ladder.

“We know we’re chasing a big finish, but at 8-3 you couldn’t be displeased with the way we’ve got there.

“Like every team we’ve dealt with some injuries along the way … hopefully we’ll get some personnel back as the year goes on and that will hold us in good stead.”

Ryan Burton was subbed out against the Dockers with an ongoing knee issue while Hinkley confirmed Orazio Fantasia has also been troubled by a “grumbly” knee.

Both will undergo scans during the break, with the coach flagging the possibility of minor clean-up surgery for Fantasia.

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