Despite playing down Port Adelaide's slow starts against Adelaide, West Coast and North Melbourne before Saturday's match against the Tigers, the Power's senior coach now concedes they are becoming an issue after a performance that saw the club slide six goals behind Richmond on Saturday by quarter time.
That margin ballooned to seven goals by half time.
But for Hinkley, identifying Port's scoring issues early in the game isn't so much about how Port Adelaide attacks the start of matches, but how it finishes its first quarters.
For two consecutive weeks, Port's opponent has rolled on several goals in the 'time-on' period of the opening term.
"We'd like to think they (starts) weren't too big of an issue but today we've had ... not so much a poor first quarter, we had a reasonable 10 minutes at the start of the quarter - it's the back end of the quarter," Hinkley said after the game.
"Yes, they're clearly becoming an issue.
"You put yourself too far behind, eventually you can't keep coming back."
Hinkley didn't fault the effort of his players, with Port winning clearances and on-par with the Tigers in contested possessions and inside 50s.
But it was in the way his side tried to implement his gameplan that he found that he found fault, describing the club's "method" as good, but "execution" as poor.
He also credited Richmond with bringing a high-pressure game to the match.
"You've got to give credit to the side we're playing, the Tigers put us under enormous pressure," said Hinkley.
"We haven't looked like that very often where we've overused the ball, we've panicked with the ball, we've fumbled.
"Their pressure was very good."
He described the 41-point loss as the most disappointing for the year, with Port never looking in the game, compared to last week's performance against North Melbourne where it looked a chance to win up until the final siren.
While he said the way the team starts is an issue that is being worked on at training, he reinforced the view that there is no substitute for hard work.
"Sometimes it purely that you just need to go to work and get your hands dirty really early, and compose yourself," said Hinkley.
"(It was) certainly our most disappointing result - purely on the scoreboard - and it looked like that."
Hinkley says despite the Power's 5-0 start to the season, two consecutive losses shows opposition have started to learn what his side does well and will look to expose it.
But the upside, says Hinkey, is that his young players will be able to learn from the days they are beaten.
"We've been doing some things real well and sides are starting to take a look at us," said Hinkley.
"It's great and we welcome that because the only way we're going to improve is if we get experience of that.
"We are still in that renewal stage, we want to make sure we get better from every game and being exposed by those experienced sides is a great way to learn."
Port Adelaide's next game will be against Carlton at Etihad Stadium on Sunday 19 May.
