PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley said his side accepted a challenge to start well in Saturday’s win over Essendon after a slow start in Round 1.

Hinkley’s side booted the opening five goals of the game at Adelaide Oval in its return to the venue for the first time in 2021.

It meant the game was played mostly on Port’s terms as it went on to win by nine goals.

Last week Port was put under early pressure by North Melbourne and Hinkley said it was a focus of his side that it would not happen again.

“It was probably the most important thing, other than getting the win, was our start back here with our fans at Adelaide Oval,” he said after the game.

“We wanted to make sure that the team they were supporting was capable to switch on from the very start and compete in a contest.

“That’s what Tom (Jonas) demands of them as the captain and Ollie (Wines), Hamish (Hartlett) and Darcy (Byrne-Jones), the four leaders of our club were pretty strong with that when they needed to be at the start of the game.

“Last week North Melbourne put us under pressure early. The challenge was to put the opposition under pressure this week.”

Port had nine different goal kickers including Charlie Dixon and Mitch Georgiades who booted four goals each.

Georgiades only found out he was playing on Saturday morning with the late withdrawal of Todd Marshall with a back injury.

It makes for an interesting selection dilemma for Hinkley with Marshall expected to be able to resume next week.

“I thought Todd would play, unfortunately his back just didn’t get there and we weren’t going to take a risk and to be fair we didn’t need to take a risk when we had a young player sitting there waiting to play who can play a similar position,” Hinkley said of the decision to bring Georgiades in.

“As we saw today, he played a pretty handy game himself.

“It’s a good thing for us. We’ve said it all year that a squad mentality was how we were going to approach it and people would play roles and accept roles.

“We’re going to have Rozee available as well so it’s going to put a squeeze on but the boys understand that and understand that everyone’s going to have to take their turn.”

Where in previous years Port has been heavily reliant on Dixon to be the main target, most pleasing for Hinkley is the spread of goalkickers, particularly the big men.

“We’ve improved and that group in front of the ball are at times somewhat young, they’re new with Orazio (Fantasia) coming into the group this year so there’s definitely some improvement there but they’ve got some genuine understanding of how to play football together, which is a good sign for us,” he explained.

“You’ve got Dixon, Ladhams, Marshall, Georgiades and Lycett went forward as a tall.

“It gives us some confidence that there’s a few people who can take the position if they need to and can support Charlie.

“Charlie takes a lot of load and got some reward today but it’s good to share it around a bit.

“That makes the opposition second guess if they triple team Dixon. We haven’t quite had that player to go to (in previous years) but we’ve certainly found one or two or three.”

Hinkley was again well served by his midfield which won the clearances 39-28 and helped launch attack after attack. Port had 62 inside 50s to 39 and constantly threatened.

The chief protagonists in the middle were Ollie Wines (38 disposals, five clearances, five tackles, six inside 50s), Travis Boak (30 disposals, nine clearances, four tackles, six inside 50s) and the outstanding Zak Butters (36 disposals, six clearances, six tackles, eight score involvements and a goal).

Butters is enjoying more time on the ball this season and Hinkley said his upside was enormous.

“He’s like a lot of our young players – he’s very talented and has a lot of growth to come,” the coach said.

“Zak’s really driven with what he wants to achieve. I think he can achieve anything he really wants to if he really challenges himself.

“I know the way he prepares and he’ll give himself every opportunity.”

Hinkley’s men next travel to Perth to face West Coast next Saturday night.

After consecutive big wins to open the season, the game shapes as a big test.

Hinkley said his side prepared the same way for every game because the competition is tight, but his Port Adelaide outfit was confident it could beat any side and was still improving.

“We are definitely a better team now than we were at the end of 2020,” Hinkley said.

“I know that. I’ve seen that. I’ve seen them train like that and already play like that.

“The challenge for the team is that there’s another 20 games to go before we even think about anything else.”