Enjoy Power's win in moderation

Port Adelaide's Angus Monfries, left, and Kane Cornes thank fans after the team's big first-round win over Melbourne at the MCG. Picture: Scott Barbour. Source: Getty Images

BE EXCITED, jump on board, but tread with caution - that is my message to Power fans.

Yes, Port Adelaide was terrific in smashing the Demons at the MCG on Easter Sunday.

But it is only one win.

Port fans have every right to be happy with the club's tough, uncompromising performance, which, significantly, appears to have lifted the black cloud that was hanging over Alberton.

First-round draft pick Ollie Wines was brilliant and fulfilled all the expectations of a player of undoubted potential.

Twenty-four disposals, a goal and a Rising Star nomination did nothing to dampen talk that he will be the Power's next big thing.

Wines' ability to win contested ball in tight situations and his near-perfect tackling are a godsend to a team that was labelled uncompetitive and irrelevant by some people in 2012.

But Wines wasn't alone in impressing. He is just one player in a deepening midfield group full of role players.

Travis Boak led superbly in his first game as captain, taking his game to a new level.

The obvious maturity of fellow midfielders Hamish Hartlett, Brad Ebert, Matthew Broadbent, Chad Wingard and Andrew Moore and the off-season recruitment of Angus Monfries gives Port fans greater optimism of rebuilding an engine room with a new cylinder.

All of a sudden the team is no longer reliant on a couple of prime movers to get the job done.

Port has been renowned for playing tough, uncompromising football, and on Sunday it delivered the re-established minimum standard

New coach Ken Hinkley's approach has been brilliant. The hard taskmaster has the playing group eating out of his hand, similar to how Mark Williams did when he introduced professional football to a young Power squad back in 1999.

Hinkley's words have also hit the mark with the fans.

"Every time you go out you want to make a small statement or take a small step in the right direction of where you're trying to go as a football club," he said after the 79-point demolition of Melbourne.

This no-fuss attitude is refreshing in the current world of football cliches.

But Hinkley's team delivered the biggest statement on Easter Sunday - that it is not going to be an easybeat in 2013.

In contrast, the Demons - disgraceful, insipid and mentally fragile against Port - are clearly in for another year of pain.

I tipped them to finish bottom and saw nothing on Sunday to suggest I would be wrong.

Port's win, however, was the perfect tonic for a rebuilding club.

After an off-season of rebuilding, the team was virtually unrecognisable from the one that has bitterly disappointed since last making the finals in 2007.

A diverse, fresh board with a high-profile chairman, David Koch, a soon-to-be-independent ownership and with the backing of the AFL ... how quickly things have changed.

The immediate impact made by returning head fitness coach Darren Burgess has been huge. While his rumoured big pay packet has created some negative talk, he is worth every cent.

The players' bodies have been transformed, with bigger-bodied midfielders being replaced by lean running machines because, in modern footy, if you can't run you can't play.

A ruthless coaching panel set on rewarding role players with a defensive mindset and all of a sudden those who wanted to close the doors on the country's most successful football club appear to be sitting silently in the shadows with egg on their faces.

Port has been renowned for playing tough, uncompromising football, and on Sunday it delivered the re-established minimum standard.

While the players passed their first major test with flying colours, it's now the fans' turn to get on board.

They need to put their hands in their pockets and join the Power revolution.

Then the responsibility again falls back on the players.

As every footy fan knows, there is more to a season than one outing.

Saturday night's John McCarthy tribute clash against GWS is important for many reasons.

But most of all, this Port team needs to show it really is coming of age.

One win doesn't make a winter.

Two in a row to start the season will really get people talking.

Warren Tredrea can be heard on Triple M's "Hot Breakfast" weekdays from 7-9am, "Deadset Legends" from 9am-noon on Saturdays and Triple M Footy. Twitter @warrentredrea

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