KEN HINKLEY says Justin Westhoff deserves a beer after keeping Port Adelaide's finals hopes alive with an enormous match-saving mark in the club's thrilling five-point win against St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

Hinkley's comment may have been made a little in jest, but the gesture wouldn't be far from the truth.

With the Saints trailing by less than a kick and with all the momentum in a pulsating final term, Westhoff soared from five-deep to pull in a pressure mark with just minutes left on the clock.

As the clock ticked, Port Adelaide held off another late St Kilda charge, with Westhoff again coming up big with another composed mark in defence.

The Power star was suspended for the game against the Hawks last week and it showed, as the team lacked its usual structure and zest for the game.

"Now you know why I was a little bit cranky last week when he wasn't in the side," Hinkley said on Saturday night.

"He's (Westhoff) been fantastic for us all season. He's an experienced player who's absolutely got some composure and we haven't got a lot of those boys in the team.

"He led the way really strongly in that last quarter and he clearly wanted us to win."

Westhoff said he was not fazed by the pressure moment. He collected 18 touches and kicked two goals, which included linking up on a crucial end-to-end Power flurry in the final term.

"I wasn't really thinking to be honest, but it seemed to stick in the end," he said.

"I was happy to take the mark and cool the game down."

Too often in the past the Power would have wilted under the intense pressure St Kilda was bringing in the second-half, according to Westhoff.

But he believes the club's wins in high-stakes games this season have given them great belief that they can withstand the heat from opposition sides.

"As Kenny said it builds a lot of character within the group. Probably in the past that game would've slipped away," Westhoff said.

"But credit to the group and the work they've put in over the summer. It's just unreal the way they can react and, even when a team's fighting back like St Kilda did, we were able to edge in front and win the game in the end."

Hinkley praised Kane Mitchell's influential role as the substitute and Matthew Lobbe's solo effort in the ruck, saying that the big man is "finally starting to believe he can play at this level".

The Power coach declared his side's finals destiny was in its own hands.

"Our whole season's been up to us. It's been up to what we want to achieve from it, and yeah, right now we're in a really strong position," Hinkley said.

"But we know how hard this competition is and we know if we don't work as hard as we have again tonight we'll get ourselves in trouble.

"I don't want to talk about the outcome all the time.

"We'll get what we deserve and tonight we deserved to win the game. Yes it was a game of two halves, but at the end we were brave and strong and held on when we needed to."