PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley is proud of the way his side took the sting out of Shaun Burgoyne’s 400^th AFL game early and went on to seal victory against Hawthorn on Saturday night.

It was a big occasion at Marvel Stadium, with an even bigger build-up that included a hasty mid-week departure from Adelaide because of a COVID-19 scare as well as Burgoyne’s milestone.

Arriving two days early in Melbourne, Hinkley’s side showed no signs of being displaced in the first half, conceding the first goal but then piling on the next nine to take complete control.

The scoring slowed in the second half and the Hawks closed to within 23 points before Port again kicked away, finishing 34 points up at the end.

“I thought the first half was really strong and was really pleased with the way we performed because Hawthorn had a lot going on this week – and I should acknowledge that right from the start – with Shaun’s magnificent achievement of 400 games,” Hinkley said after the game.

“I’ve been around football and they’re games that are really dangerous, they’re games that are sometimes hard to play in and I was really pleased with how our first half went.

“In the second half we expected Hawthorn to come out and give a bit more and that’s what they did and we made some mistakes that were a bit off target and that we should have been better at.”

Ollie Wines recorded a career-high 43 disposals for the second time this season and Charlie Dixon booted four goals in starring performances.

Burgoyne was relatively quiet, playing mostly as a deep defender, recording 11 disposals, and was chaired off by former Port Adelaide teammate Travis Boak and current Hawk Liam Shiels with his family trailing behind in a touching moment that will live long in the memory banks.

“We were very respectful about the occasion and what Shaun had achieved in his career because he’d been a great part of our football club with over 150-odd games and a premiership player for us,” Hinkley explained.

“We wanted to be very respectful of Shaun but we didn’t want it to cause us any pain as far as the season goes.

“We talked about the time for us to be respectful was after the game and the time for us to be brutal as we are in any game was right from the start, and to the boys’ credit they were able to take some of the emotion out of the game.”

The result was soured by a serious first quarter knee injury to young forward Kane Farrell and he was subbed off, bringing medical sub Martin Frederick into the game.

“Unfortunately, it looks like Kane’s done some serious knee damage. We don’t know yet but we suspect it will be an ACL,” Hinkley said of Farrell’s injury.

“It’s a real tragedy because he’s made some great strides this year as a young player… and he’s built his game around his great leg, but he’s also got a good strong contest and that’s where he got hurt.

“We’ll support him strongly and what I do know about Kane is he’ll use the opportunity to develop himself and better himself and we’ll be around him to support him all the way through.”

Frederick burst into the game with his first AFL goal in just his sixth game – sidestepping Burgoyne at full pace and kicking truly.

The 21-year-old came close to being delisted at the end of 2020 before forcing his way into the side this year.

“He’s a good acknowledgement of the program,” Hinkley said. “We’ve been able to bring guys in like that this year and play four debutants.

“Frederick, Bergman, they’re the type of players we’ve been able to see and Marty’s done a really good job.

“He’s come from a long way away at the end of last season and now he’s played maybe six or seven games of AFL football.

“What a great story for our footy club.”

Port will now turn its attention recovery with a clash with the top of the table Demons off a five-day turnaround on Thursday night.