KEN HINKLEY sees a little bit of Port Adelaide in the development of the Western Bulldogs, likening his football ideologies to those of Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney.
McCartney's side had lost three straight games prior to last week’s stunning eight point win over Collingwood.
The Dogs won the contested possession battle and were dominant in clearances, winning 51-34.
Hinkley and McCartney, along with Crows coach Brenton Sanderson were all assistant coaches together at Geelong and the Power mentor said all coached in a similar style.
Hinkley said it should come as no surprise that their methods for winning stemmed from their days together at the Cattery.
"Knowing 'Macca' (McCartney), I think the contested side of the game, the defensive side of the game will be the number one priority – as it is with us," Hinkley said.
"You'll try and build your team from there and we've been able to do that and I'm sure they'll be working on doing it themselves.
"I think we'd have pretty similar ideas on the game.
"We've seen some stuff work that we get a fair bit of confidence out of, so we're going to coach and deliver that in a similar way."
The Power and Bulldgos meet on Saturday at Adelaide Oval and Hinkley was wary of a team boosted by its underdog win.
He strongly dismissed any hype over his Port’s gallant defeat to the Sydney Swans last weekend.
He called on his team to defend harder on Saturday to ensure it kept its one-win buffer at the top of the ladder.
"Let's be honest, [the Bulldogs] were copping a little bit of heat," Hinkley said.
"I think their form's been not as bad as some people would think – they’ve had patches where they've led games by four goals and just haven’t been able to complete the task.
"We know we need to defend better, that’s the simple message; we conceded 98 points last week and if we concede 98 points most weeks you're going to get beaten.
"There's an old saying that first to 100 wins and if you're going to let them get to 98, that's pretty close."
