WHILE Port Adelaide’s midfield stars fired against Melbourne on Sunday, it was performances at the two ends of the ground that put a smile on Ken Hinkley’s face post-match.

Mitch Georgiades took 10 marks and kicked a career-high seven goals in a dominant display up forward, while Esava Ratugolea also hit a career best with 13 marks as he continually repelled the Demons’ attacking forays.

Hinkley saw the strong key position performances for what they were – “A different way to win.”

"Mitch has kicked 7.4 and might not have been best-on-ground," Hinkley said.

"It's not typically we talk about bookends of the ground, a full-forward and a full-back, being as dominant as they were, we’ve typically survived around the midfield group.”

“It was really pleasing for Esava particularly to play that way – he’s played a really strong year, he’s been a really important player for us this year. You can see him growing with confidence.

“And then Mitchell, to do what he did on a high-quality opponent and score the goals that he scored - that’s a big number in AFL footy, seven - you know 7.4 is a really big number now.

“As I said, it’s a different way for us to win when we’re strong at both ends of the ground.”

It has generally been the case that the Power’s engine room gets the attention, and once again Zak Butters, Jason Horne-Francis and Connor Rozee were impressive, but Georgiades’ improvement in particular could prove crucial in the future.

“We’d like to think our game is continuing to develop,” Hinkley said.

“It needed a reset and we’ve managed to, so far, start off the back half of the year in a better position.”