Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley believes anyone who labels his side “flat-track bullies” is being “disrespectful” to the premiership contenders that have beaten the Power.

But recent losses to the Western Bulldogs and Brisbane Lions have exposed two alarming concerns for the Power that need to be addressed.

The Power lost to the Bulldogs by 19 points on Saturday night, which saw them slip to 6-3 for the season.

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Brisbane

All three of the Power’s losses so far this season have been against current top-eight teams in West Coast, Brisbane and the Bulldogs. While they had a terrific two-point win over Richmond in Round 4, their other wins have come against North Melbourne (18th), Essendon (12th), Carlton (13th), St Kilda (11th) and Adelaide (15th) by an average margin of 47 points.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Monday night, Hinkley said the Power had learnt valuable lessons in recent weeks.

“We‘ve failed against a couple of very, very good sides who sit second and third on the ladder and the West Coast got us over there Outside of that, we’ve got some clear information about what we need to get better at – and the great part is, we’ve got a lot of the season still to play and we’re looking forward to our opportunities to get better,” Hinkley told AFL 360.

Asked by Gerard Whateley whether he was open to the charge the Power were “flat-track bullies”, Hinkley said: “That‘s an opinion and opinions are always important. You listen to some and you don’t to others.

“You look at the season in whole, I think if you call us a ‘flat-track bully’, you‘re being really disrespectful to the Bulldogs and to Brisbane particularly who sit second and third on the ladder. We’ve been beaten by two very good sides.”

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Despite losing two of their past three games, St Kilda legend Nick Riewoldt said the Power hadn’t lost much credibility, especially because the likes of Zak Butters, Dan Houston and Scott Lycett were all currently sidelined.

Riewoldt pointed out that between Rounds 7 to 9, the Power were ranked 18th for points from defensive half – a far cry from the first six rounds where they were ranked first – indicating their powerful front-half game was gradually regaining momentum.

“It hasn’t turned me off Port Adelaide,” Riewoldt told Fox Footy’s On The Couch.

“I still think that when you look at their game last year and then how they started this year, it was a bit of a stark contrast. So they all of a sudden this year became a back-half team when they‘ve been so well known for being a front-half team. But they’ve got their game back the last few weeks and they just haven’t been able to capitalise.

“Maybe they were looking to evolve a few things within their game and it had that flow-on effect, but I still think we‘re living in such an era of any given day, any side can knock each other off.”

However Riewoldt said there was some concern over the Power’s backline.

Riewoldt said the likes of Darcy Byrne-Jones, Dan Houston and Hamish Hartlett were great distributors off half-back and provided great drive, but appeared vulnerable when defending.

“I think their greatest strength as a backline can be their greatest weakness in that they have so many really damaging half-backers that love the ball going the other way,” Riewoldt said.

“We know Port Adelaide is so dangerous offensively, when the ball is in their hands. But the flip side is they can be exposed.”

Melbourne champion Garry Lyon then pointed to vision from recent Port games of both the Bulldogs and Lions scoring goals as a result of Power defenders sagging off their direct opponents, who pounced on loose ground balls and kicked truly.

Lyon said the Power defenders often gave opposition forwards too much “leg rope” – an observation emphasised by a passage of play from the Lions-Power game that saw Hartlett give Lion Callum Ah Chee ample space to crumb and snap an easy goal.

“This isn‘t defenders not defending. This is defenders playing on their own terms,” Lyon told On The Couch.

“That’s a minor concern for me right now.”

Triple premiership Lion Jonathan Brown added: “There’s an imbalance there because they’re either key defenders or running kicking defenders.”

But Brown’s more pressing concern was around the form of key forward Charlie Dixon, who’s kicked just two goals and averaged 1.5 contested marks from his four games against top-eight sides.

“I think he might be going out with the expectation ‘I have to play like an All-Australian forward’. He needs to get back to playing his role for the team,” Brown told On The Couch.

“This is key forward craft 101: You never let the ball over the back and I‘m seeing this far too often from Charlie Dixon. He’s not playing with presence and crunching the packs and bringing the ball to the ground.

“He didn‘t need to look any further than at the other end of the grand with Aaron Naughton on the weekend, who just plays a fantastic role as a key forward. And the great strength about Richmond over the years has been the acceptance of Tom Lynch and Jack Riewoldt to play that forward role and just bring the ball to ground for their teammates.

“I think Charlie Dixon can do better, maybe not try as hard.”