PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley was complimenting his side when describing them as "grubby" against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night.

The Power were pushed by the Bulldogs for three quarters in what was a tense struggle until the home side managed a six-goal final-term blitz to run out 38-point winners.

Led by Ollie Wines (33 possessions) and Chad Wingard (23 disposals, three goals), it was a performance much closer to Hinkley's desired four-quarter showing.

It was a tough arm-wrestle of a game for the most part, and it was the Power who stuck to task for the longest.

"Persistence, I think that's what it was; we were prepared to stay pretty grubby for a while," Hinkley said.

"We said a couple of times in the coaches' box ‘hang in there, hang in there – let's make sure we support what we're coaching’.

"We were able to stay in the game; that's the sort of game that we're able to play that strong four quarters when we're in good nick.

"We haven't been in great form [but] we were able to keep ourselves going tonight and it was a pretty strong performance at the end."

Wines was sensational on Saturday night, with 23 contested possessions, 11 clearances and a goal.

But he was far from alone.

As well as Wingard, the likes of Brad Ebert (22 disposals, 11 tackles, one goal), Travis Boak (22 disposals, one goal) and Hamish Hartlett (20 possessions, one goal) all stood up.

Hinkley said it was the midfield's group effort that would regularly bring success.

"He's been pretty important, there's no doubt about that…but the fact [is] collectively the midfield team work better when Ollie's a part of it," he said.

"They rely on each other a little bit and that's a team … if they stick together and play their role together, someone on a night will pop up and do the job that we need to do."