PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley has expressed his pride in his team’s ability to withstand a late charge on Friday night to bank its first win in Geelong since 2007.

Zak Butters (34 disposals, seven clearances and a goal) and Jason Horne-Francis (26, seven and one) starred for Port, which held on to win 15.11 (101) to 14.11 (95).

The Power opened the game with an eight-goal-to-two first quarter, bursting out of the blocks with the first four majors to stun the 29,942 crowd at GMHBA Stadium.

Hinkley praised Butters, standing in as captain in the absence of the injured Connor Rozee, and Horne-Francis for their hot start and all-round performance.

"I thought the stand-in captain was outstanding and I thought Jason was equally as outstanding," Hinkley said after the game.

"Then the collective team, together, and we don't like to individualise a little bit, but certainly some players had big moments out there in the first half to give us a bit of adrenaline I think and a little bit of energy.

"We played down here last year and we played pretty well, we had a lot of people missing and we fell just short, but we thought we played the ground OK."

It was an impressive response by Hinkley’s men following a disappointing showing in last week’s Showdown against the Crows.

“We played a pretty strong first half and hung tough in the second half because we knew they play aggressive offence, they get out the back really easy and really quickly and to hang on I was really proud,” Hinkley said.

“I thought we had a really good week as a group. There’s a fair bit that goes said and done around footy and our week after a disappointing performance in a really tough competition, and it gets blown up a bit more because it was a Showdown.

“We’ve been a pretty good team through the first part of this year. We’ve put ourselves in a reasonable spot so I was just proud of the boys to find some energy after last week and to come down to the hardest road trip and get the result.”