Soon after getting the gig as Port Adelaide coach, Ken Hinkley saw an empty toilet paper roll on the floor of the clubroom toilets.

He didn’t see it as rubbish, but a sign of the decay eating at the AFL club.

If the player responsible couldn’t be trusted to show respect to the cleaners, and the next person to use that toilet, could they be trusted on the field in the heat of battle?

So Hinkley summoned the players, demanded to know the culprit, then ordered all players show utmost respect.

“Just an absolute professional,” Port’s four-time club champion Kane Cornes says of Hinkley.

“Just everything he does, mate, he’s an absolute pro.”

Hinkley took the helm in October 2012 of a club at the lowest possible ebb.

In 2012, Port relied on financial handouts from the AFL to stay afloat. They missed the finals for a fifth consecutive year. Their home attendances averaged 19,911 – an all-time low.

And a month before Hinkley was appointed, Port’s much-loved player John McCarthy died in Las Vegas on an end-of-season trip with some teammates, falling to his death at a casino complex.

Dom Cassisi, then Port’s captain, describes the club at the time as broken.

Enter Hinkley, a man who initially rejected overtures Port to bid for the job – he wasn’t sure he could handle more rejection, having been overlooked for three other head-coaching roles.

When at least four other candidates signalled no interest in becoming Port’s coach, Hinkley’s family convinced him to have a crack.

“People have said I was the last man standing,” Hinkley said when appointed.

“But maybe I was the right man standing.”

Now, not yet two years on, there is no doubt.

Hinkley signed for four seasons and espoused themes of respect, honesty and hard work – and a mantra of `you get what you deserve’.

He returned Port to the promised land of the AFL finals in his first season.

And he has done the same in his second season, with Port to host Richmond in an elimination final on Sunday.

Did Hinkley think it would take him his full four-year contract to get Port to where they are now?

After a considered pause, Hinkley replies: “You never know what you’re capable of achieving until you go out and have a go at it.”

He didn’t believe Port were ahead of his expectations, simply because he didn’t really know what to expect.

“I just want to take what comes,” he says.

“I’m part of the journey but it’s still a journey though.

“There is still parts of our game we’re still trying to improve.

“But we want to get to be the best team in the competition as quick as we possibly can.

“We’re not going to set a timeline on it … we’re going to try and get there as quick as we can.”

Hinkley’s on-field revival coincides with a stunning off-field resurgence.

During the record low average crowds of 2012, the club draped massive tarpaulins over bays of seats at the now-defunct AAMI Stadium in a bid to camouflage the lack of spectators.

This year, Port average 44,521 spectators a home game at the redeveloped Adelaide Oval and boast the top two AFL crowds at the refurbished stadium.

Money and luring sponsors is no longer an issue – everybody loves a winner. And Hinkley has ensured Port become winners more often than not in eye-catching style.

Port at their pomp boast waves of runners, precise skills, midfield talent, and an attack featuring the freakish abilities of Chad Wingard, Robbie Gray and Justin Westhoff.

But for Hinkley, all of those facets are only possible because of one thing: defence.

“We are a really good defensive team,” he says.

“Over the course of the 22 home and away games that we played, we’re (ranked) third in defence.

“That will be our strength. If we can get our defence right, that will go a long way to winning the game for us.”