PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley took pride in his side sticking together during its tough opening to the season and although admitting its 84-point win over West Coast was far from perfect, was pleased with signs of improvement.

Playing at home in front of a vocal crowd at Adelaide Oval, Hinkley’s side conceded the first goal but booted the next eleven to break the game open.

West Coast finally added to its goal tally early with three quick goals in the last quarter but it was always Port’s game as the home side got its first win of the season and first against the Eagles at Adelaide Oval in its sixth attempt.

The 18.9 (117) to 4.9 (33) result was as resounding a win as the Power faithful could have asked for but for Hinkley it was a step in the right direction.

“We certainly continued the improvement, I thought that was really pleasing for us and desperately needed,” the Port Adelaide coach said after the game.

“We continued to take a step forward again tonight which clearly we were trying to achieve.

“We knew where we were at and we stuck to the task.”

“We’ve been in a pretty challenging spot for a period of time but I’m really proud of the whole footy club and the team,” he continued. “Even the crowd; 28,000 tonight and we haven’t been giving people a lot of pleasure, let’s be fair.

“Everyone stuck together and I was really proud of that.”

Port Adelaide started with Sam Hayes, Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Ollie Wines at the first bounce in a glimpse of the future and was well served by most of that group.

Butters was quiet by his standards but Hayes (47 hit-outs and 11 disposals), Rozee (a career high 31 disposals, five tackles and eight clearances) and Wines (33 tackles, six clearances in his return following a heart scare) set the tone throughout.

Hinkley said Rozee had continued to grow with more midfield time, Wines had shown no ill effect of his resolved heart irregularity while Hayes in his second game was commanding.

“It’s huge for Sam,” Hinkley said. “He’s a young ruckman in his second game.”

“He’s been thrown in almost because of what happened with Scott but again he gave our midfielders (a look). The number one job of a ruckman is to give your midfielders a look and the numbers would say Sam certainly did that tonight.”

Hinkley’s outfit was also well serviced by its forward line with key forwards Todd Marshall and Jeremy Finlayson each booting five goals and Mitch Georgiades taking eight marks and nailing a goal.

The coach was pleased for Marshall and Finlayson, saying their output was a combination of a better understanding in an inexperienced forward line and improving delivery to them.

“Clearly, they got plenty of opportunities and that worked for us,” Hinkley explained. “Todd’s had a couple of games this year where he’s kicked five now so that’s significant growth for us. We think it’s a really positive step for us and Jeremy’s had his first real impact at AFL level for us.

“Jeremy’s had some personal challenges and he’s also at a new club so it takes a bit of time to work through some of the stuff he’s had.

“He’s coached really clearly by Nathan (Bassett) to understand his role for our side. It’s a different role than what he’s had, particularly now without Charlie (Dixon) so he’s asked to do a fair bit for us and I think he’s doing that day by day.

“But we know what happened and we’ve made one small step today.”

Hinkley’s outfit lost Miles Bergman before the game to the flu with Karl Amon performing strongly after winning a reprieve while Zak Butters toiled manfully after overcoming the flu earlier in the week.

Robbie Gray was subbed out during the third quarter after jarring his right knee but is expected to be fine to play next week against St Kilda.

The Saints are flying with five straight wins and Hinkley is expecting the trip to Cairns next Saturday to be another big challenge.

“We’ve just got to stay in the moment and stay focussed on how we can continually improve ourselves as players and coaches and staff,” he said.

“We know what we’ve done. We’ve put ourselves behind the eight ball by a fair way.

“I’m confident in the group. I’ve said that all the way through. I can sit here confidently to say we’ll continue to improve. There’ll be challenges, there always are, but we can stick to task and keep our focus on now and not get too far ahead of that.

“We know the challenge next week now. It’s St Kilda in Cairns and they’re in pretty red-hot form so we’ll go up there and play as well as we can possibly play and that will give us a great chance.”