PORT Adelaide will not put the brakes on its exciting style in 2015, believing it has built a premiership-winning brand of football under coach Ken Hinkley.
While still placing a premium on team defence, the Power have become the most exhilarating team in the AFL with their run and gun offensive game.
According to Champion Data, they were the fastest team at turning defence into attack last season, converting rebound 50s into forward entries at an average speed of 17.7 seconds.
The Power also played on after a mark more than any team (37 per cent), capitalising on their envied fitness levels which are tipped to go to a new level in 2015.
Hinkley said his team could not claim to have played perfect football until they won a premiership, but didn't need to change course dramatically to realise those ambitions.
"We've still got a lot of work to do, but we believe in what we do … we have to believe that the way we play is good enough to eventually win a premiership," Hinkley told AFL.com.au.
"I like the game to be played exciting, I like it to be fast, I like to be intense and I like it to be combative.
"I like seeing the great things of our game on show – the marks, the goals, the tackles, the hits, all the contests that come from it.
"But I also see it played as a team and that's one thing we're all focused on … it's got to be 45 on our list that have got to be involved with the way we want to play football."
Port Adelaide's revered fitness under high performance guru Darren Burgess is a key factor to the exciting game the 2014 preliminary finalist plays, but Hinkley said his team's physical capabilities were yet to peak.
The coach and Burgess joined the Power at the same time in late 2012, and devised a three-year fitness plan to build a team capable of contending for premierships.
Hinkley said the third pre-season under that plan had been tougher than any he had been involved in.
"Certainly 'Burgo' and myself when we got together, we said there was going to be three years before we could get the boys to the level that we really wanted to get them to," Hinkley said.
"We had to take our time initially in year one, year two we pushed it again, and year three we've gone again.
"We've looked to try and get an advantage, we know our run is an advantage for us, and we need to make sure we make the most of that.
"Train hard and then train harder (has been the philosophy)."
Hinkley is confident the Power will reach round one with only Sam Colquhoun sidelined as he recovers from a knee reconstruction.
Key pair Chad Wingard (knee) and Jackson Trengove (shoulder) are expected to feature in either NAB Challenge or intra-club matches to prepare for the Power's round one game against Fremantle on April 5.
Wingard, who had right knee surgery at the end of January, is not expected to be in full training until at least the end of this month.
Trengove had shoulder surgery in mid-January, but the 24-year-old has been able to maintain his fitness despite the setback.
"They'll play some footy, but what that will be and when that will be you've just got to progress them how they go," Hinkley said.
"Jackson's history will tell me that he's a really quick healer and gets back ahead of schedule most times, but a shoulder may be a bit different.
"Chad's is the first real injury he's probably had to deal with, so it'll be interesting to see how quickly he can get back.
"Right now we expect him to be available for round one."
