Port Adelaide kicked the first three goals of the match and had Justin Westhoff take a shot at goal to give them a 25-point lead midway through the first quarter. But after that miss, the Power were outscored 19 goals to six, and were smashed in every key indicator. "Our workrate wasn't at AFL level today, and I'm really disappointed with that," Hinkley said. He said his coaching box felt at stages during the game that the Bulldogs were doing to them as they had done to a succession of other teams over the past few years. "We played today like a side that was waiting for someone to give us the knockout blow," he said. "They got to work pretty hard and drilled in on us and we didn't handle it, and then I think we caved in to their pressure. "We've seen a side that played against us today who are connected as a team. They stayed together as a football team today and we didn't, and that's been our problem for most part of this year.

"They [the Bulldogs] are a team who are excited by how they're going, and they know what's probably on the horizon a little bit. And we're a team that was just trying to hang on to our footy season. "When you play like you're just trying to hang on, eventually you're going to crumble, and we crumbled today." But Hinkley said he was looking forward to Port's final four games of the season if only as guide to see which of his players were prepared to tough out what has been a tremendously disappointing year for a team that missed playing in last year's grand final by less than a goal. "I'm actually looking forward to the next four weeks to see how tough we really can be, because in my time here, we've been tough on our terms a bit too often, and not when it's going against us." Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said that while he was concerned by his team's slow start, he couldn't have been more happier about how they turned things around and then continued to stay on top.

"It was a really strong performance – it was a shaky start though," Beveridge said. "To the boys' credit again, we've had a few of those starts in recent times, they settled really quickly and arrested the momentum back. In the end it was quite an outstanding performance across the board. "We're playing good footy, we're moving the ball well. Our swing is on average 28 points. Before today, we were only kicking eight points more [per game than last year] but we're keeping sides to 20 points less. "To have that 28-point swing so quickly, and to change and adapt to a new approach is just an enormous credit to everyone." The Bulldogs will start hot favourite next week against Melbourne at their favourite Etihad stomping ground before two bigger challenges over the following fortnight against West Coast in Perth and then North Melbourne.