Hinkley was an assistant to Guy McKenna for three years – one in the VFL and two in the AFL – before getting the senior Port Adelaide job this season.
Not only was Hinkley a respected forwards coach at the Suns, but one very much admired by everyone from captain Gary Ablett all the way down to the raft of teenagers he helped over that period.
But since arriving at Alberton in October, Hinkley has spent little time worrying about the Suns and thinks whatever knowledge he had of them is now redundant.
"Sometimes it can play a few tricks with you," Hinkley said.
"You think you know a lot about them, where my major job now is to make sure I know a lot more about Port Adelaide … that's more important to me than knowing too much about the Suns.
"In six months with a young team, I know how much they can improve. What I knew six months ago might be a fair bit different now."
Hinkley stood alongside his former boss McKenna at a joint press conference at Metricon Stadium on Friday afternoon, and the pair are still clearly great mates.
Hinkley has skated to three successive wins to start his career, and even McKenna joked it took him 12 months to notch that many victories.
The Power coach said he still cheered for the Suns when not coaching against them, and saw great improvement with their 1-2 start to the season.
"I think their results clearly show they're improving," he said.
"I know at the back end of last year when we were here we knew as a club, the Suns, we were six goals better at Metricon.
"We're certainly aware of how good they are up here. I can see their improvement, even against Sydney (41-point, round two loss), they were right in the contest."
McKenna said he was not surprised by Hinkley's impact and could see his fingerprints over the Power's gameplan.
"The way we've played offensively has been stamped with Kenny. You see a lot of that in Port Adelaide," McKenna said.
"Stripping that back and being the main person he's been able to change their style of football and it's resulted in three good wins."
Ruckman Charlie Dixon got through the Suns' final training session on Friday and is a certain starter after overcoming a knock to the Achilles during last week's loss against the Brisbane Lions.
Michael Whiting covers Gold Coast news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting
