PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley says his side’s “irresistible” first quarter against Fremantle on Sunday night is the blueprint for how he’d like it to always play.
Port burst out of the blocks with a seven-goals-to-zero opening term to set up a 46-point win at Adelaide Oval in the AFL’s Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round.
The high intensity, slick skills on display were a stark contrast to some of Port’s recent slow openings, and Hinkley was full of praise for the performance.
“It would be unreasonable to think we could play like that for every quarter but that would be our blueprint,” he said after the game.
“If we could play like that in two and a half or three quarters in every game, we know that would be mighty powerful and hard to stop.
“It’s enjoyable for our fans to watch. They enjoy watching us play that way and we’d love to play like that every quarter. There are some challenges with that but it’s a pretty irresistible style of football the way we did in the first quarter but we didn’t do it for four quarters.”
Port had three goals from the opening six forward entries and piled on four more goals as a wasteful Dockers team ensured the margin was 40 points at the first break.
Asked where the energy came from that has appeared lacking in previous first quarters this season, Hinkley wasn’t entirely sure, but he pointed to the relevance of the round.
“I think (Sir Doug Nicholls) Indigenous Round for us is really important and you would have seen that with the players, particularly in the first quarter like (Sam) Powell-Pepper and Karl Amon was amazing, Lach (Jones) and Mots (Steven Motlop) was even good,” Hinkley said.
“We started strongly. We finished strongly. Clearly there’s some bits in the middle we would have liked to have been a bit better at but that’s also not giving the credit to the opposition.
“They’ve got some quality players, they’ve won five for the year.”
Amon in particular had a brilliant opening, setting a new club record with 16 first quarter disposals and two clearances.
Monster forward Charlie Dixon was also a livewire early with two goals in the first term, although his presence in the ruck at the first bounce came as a surprise to many.
“We wanted to do something different,” Hinkley explained. “We know Charlie competes really hard in a contest.
“It was just a bit different for the opposition. They were probably expecting Ladhams but we think Charlie can give us a difference in there sometimes and if Charlie played a bit more ruck again tonight, I don’t think it hurt his game.”
While the Dockers competed hard in the second and third quarters to close from 50 points down to as few as 21, Hinkley’s side had all the answers and goes into the bye at 8-3.
“We’re certainly satisfied. I said last week, ever the optimist, we’d love to be 11-0 but we’ve put ourselves in the upper echelon of the ladder,” the Port mentor said.
“At 8-3 you couldn’t be displeased with the way we’ve got there.
“We’ve dealt with some injuries – as most sides have - along the way and hopefully we’ll get some personnel back as the year goes along and that will hold us in good stead.”
Port might have a couple more injuries to contend with after defender Ryan Burton was subbed out late with a left knee injury and forward Orazio Fantasia copped a knock to his knee and finished with ice on it.
Hinkley said after the game both had “grumbly” knees that would be looked at during the week, as the players entered a four-day leave period.
Next up is a Thursday night blockbuster home clash against Geelong on 10 June.
