PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley is confident Zak Butters will be fine to play in his side’s season opener in a fortnight, despite the gun on-baller sitting out much of the Power’s final pre-season hit out against Fremantle on Friday night.

Butters came off 10 minutes into the opening term of the 39-point win over the Dockers at Alberton Oval after rolling his right ankle.

Speaking after the game, Hinkley expected Butters to be available to tackle West Coast at Adelaide Oval on Sunday, 17 March.

“He rolled his ankle, it was as simple as that,” Hinkley said.

“I think Zak's already spoken to the media himself and is reasonably bullish that he’ll be okay.

“But it’s good timing. We’ve got a week to get him over the incident and then a week to prepare him for the next game so that'll be nice.”

Hinkley said the call was made collectively between the medical staff, himself and Butters that the 23-year-old did not need to play on.

“Let's be fair dinkum here, we don't really need to make his ankle any more swollen than it already was at the start and if you're going back out, that would clearly happen.

“So, it is a simple rolled ankle and you'd be very surprised if he's not available for round one so that's as much accuracy as I can give you.”

In windy conditions at Alberton, Port Adelaide powered away in a match defining third term, keeping the Dockers scoreless and booting 4.6 itself.

There were strong showings from Captain Connor Rozee (26 disposals, seven tackles and a goal), Ryan Burton (30 disposals, 13 marks) and Ollie Wines (27 disposals, three tackles, nine score involvements and a goal), while Willie Rioli booted 3.2 and Charlie Dixon finished with 2.2 in a strong showing after a slightly interrupted pre-season.

Sixteen days out from the Round 1 battle with the Eagles, Hinkley was pleased with the performance, particularly with the way his side defended.

“I thought it was a really, really strong performance,” he said. “I think the conditions would be challenging for both sides out there.

“I thought most impressively for us… over the last two weeks I think last week, after four quarters, we gave up 33 entries (or) 34 entries. This week, we gave up 37, maybe 38 in a full four quarters so I think ultimately for us if we can defend like that, sides have got to be really accurate, or really efficient.

“So, that gives us a good, a good base to go into the round one with your defence.

With 56 forward entries to 37, Hinkley was also happy with the way his side transitioned out of defence into attack.

“I think we've been okay at that - for a good period of time, we've been able to transition the ball reasonably well,” the coach said.

“And you know, every team makes mistakes at certain times (that) you wish you didn't.

“But you can't play perfect football and we play quite aggressive offence.

“Our team enjoys playing like that, our crowd enjoys us playing like that, and ultimately I enjoy us playing like that.”