ONE of the enduring themes that will live past #Silk400 is how a genuine champion could be sent to a hot spot on the field and - as smooth as silk - clean up a mess.

Cometh the moment, cometh the man.

Travis Boak paid the greatest tribute to Shaun Burgoyne in his 400th AFL game by living up to the "Silk" theme at the Docklands in Melbourne on Saturday night.

Just as the gulls invaded the open Marvel Stadium arena in growing numbers - in a throwback to Alfred Hitchcock's 1960s thriller "The Birds" - Port Adelaide had its own horror script unfolding.

"As Ken told us," said vice-captain Ollie Wines of coach Ken Hinkley's post-match review, "we are able to take the polish off a really good win."

Hawthorn, "trying too hard" as coach Alastair Clarkson put it, turned its first-half nightmare (falling seven goals behind) into a potential match-winning comeback to add to the Burgoyne legend.

Four consecutive goals, the margin down to 23 points and the Leigh Matthews rule was in place - there were more minutes on the clock than goals needed on the scoreboard to achieve an upset.

At then the most telling indicator from this round 16 match - the centre bounce - Boak set the example that should live in the memory of every Port Adelaide midfielder for the rest of this premiership campaign.

Head down, Boak took some heavy hits and - despite the umpire's whistle betraying him - he kept burrowing head first to get the ball cleared towards Port Adelaide's goal rather than in the other direction where Burgoyne, after starting the game at half-back, was lurking inside-50 ready to offer a silky game-winning moment.

The Boak-inspired clearance needed some more heavy duty work around half-forward and the silky pass of Karl Amon to inspired key forward Charlie Dixon to give Port Adelaide the momentum-breaking goal - the team's first goal since early in the third term when Mitch Georgiades completed Port Adelaide's run of nine consecutive goals that created a percentage-boosting 47-point lead.

This game - that became a test of breaking strong defensive systems - was very much about winning clearances, in particular centre stoppages. More "blue collar" than "silk", but hard yakka suits the Port Adelaide way.

"Our stoppage game was really strong in the first half," said Boak. "Our centre-bounce work set us up."

At half-time, Port Adelaide had the centre-stoppage counter at 8-0; the scoreboard showed an 8-1 lead in goals. And there were some slick handpass chains around those clearances that had their sweetest moves on the back of Amon's kicks to the forward 50.

In the third term, after Clarkson had calmed his troops during the long break, Hawthorn won this key performance counter 4-1. The scoreboard became 4-9 on the goal count.

The game finished with Port Adelaide winning centre clearances 15-6 and the goal count 13-7. The correlation is strong - and from the moment Boak went head first in search of a centre clearance, Port Adelaide kicked four goals to take the margin out to 34. The last two from Connor Rozee and Sam Mayes were directly tied to quick centre breaks.

"Those goals," said Richmond goalkicking hero Matthew Richardson from the commentary booth, "might be very important goals at the end of the year with percentage."

Port Adelaide stays fourth. It started the game with a percentage of 122.2. At half-time it was 126.2. At the end, with the polish gone, it was 124.4 - exactly one point ahead of Geelong.

And now the focus - as Hinkley keeps insisting - is about winning rather than building percentage with a quick turnaround to play smarting league leader Melbourne at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night.

"We will see where we really are," says vice-captain Ollie Wines who keeps rewriting his personal bests with another 43 touches at the weekend. "We understand we have not been at the level of the top-four sides (by losing to Geelong, the Western Bulldogs and Brisbane)."

There is just Melbourne left.

"So we will get a test of where we are at," adds Wines.

"We feel there is plenty more to give. Our best form is in front of us."

Yet again this match reminds all that just when Port Adelaide takes a step forward with clearing its injury list, another setback arrives. Midfielder Zak Butters made a successful return from his ankle-knee injury combination with a goal-stirring run against Central District at Elizabeth Oval on Saturday afternoon; fellow forward/midfielder Kane Farrell joined the injury list with a horrific hyper extension of his right knee at the Docklands on Saturday night.

Even the footy gods know how to tarnish the polish on a Port Adelaide win.