With help from the Power's coaching panel including back line coach Matthew Nicks, he wanted to turn the Power into a defence-oriented team.
His philosophy was simple – forget the fancy moves, if you don't have the footy you can't win.
Nicks, a key architect in the club's mentality shift, said the Power hadn't changed the way it defended, it simply changed the emphasis it put on defending.
He admitted the change in attitude took some getting used to, but the results spoke for themselves.
"It was a learning experience over the pre-season, obviously defence is number one with Ken, we've got to have a great defence if we're going to have any success," Nicks said.
"I don't think the actual version of defence is any different from last year, it's more 'what sort of priority do you put on defending?'
"There was no rocket science behind any of it, it was basically just the attitude our players have towards defending.
"You can be the most skilful side in the code but if you don't have the football there's not a lot can do."
Nicks said he noticed "massive improvement" in the Power's defensive side to their game over the pre-season, NAB Cup and into the early part of the regular season; sentiment backed up by hard statistics.
Up until round five the Power sat second on the ladder, undefeated and with the second (Essendon No.1) stingiest defence in the League.
But just as the opening five games justified Hinkley's path, consecutive losses have shown what can happen when the players stray from it.
The defensive intensity and discipline that helped deliver as many wins in the first five weeks as the club managed all last season was missing at times against North Melbourne and Richmond and it showed on the scoreboard.
Old habits die hard and while Nicks said changing a player's mindset was relatively easy, altering his instinct was time consuming.
"It doesn't take a long time [to change a player's attitude] but it takes time for it to become consistent and I think that's the key," he said.
"Our intensity on defence is the one thing that we've seen in the last couple of weeks that we haven't had where we want it to be.
"It's not that we've gone away from defending, we're still trying, we're still putting the effort in … I think it's just that tiny drop in intensity.
"The whole group's put their hand up and said, 'We know what it takes for us to win,' it's just a matter now of getting back to what is our bread and butter."
Nicks has been through a similar transition before, during his playing days with the Sydney Swans.
He arrived at the club through the 1994 NAB AFL Draft, not long after its record-breaking 26-game losing streak in 1992-93.
Nicks said a defensive shift in mentality towards the turn of the millennium was obvious and saw the club eventually develop into the premiership-winning, defensive benchmark that it is today.
"Be it they drafted in some super talented players, but there was definitely a shift at the club coming around '99-2000 where the club really made a focus of defence," he said.
"I think we've seen that now for the last decade, Sydney have been a very hard, well respected disciplined side.
"It doesn't take long to change their mindset, for a team to become like that, the thing is for that to be consistent and that's what you've seen at Sydney."
Harry Thring is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry
