There are two articles of faith to which Power coach Ken Hinkley holds firm as his embattled charges limp into the mid-season bye.

First, that he has a list from which to forge a premiership. And second, that those players are still listening to him.

“They’re listening, and they want to do it,” he said of the team’s apparent inability to execute a gameplan that was last year the most talked-about in the competition.

“They’re desperate to get things right themselves (but) the pressure of performance, we haven’t handled.

“This is the first time in my time at the club that we’ve had pressure to perform that’s been set pretty high (externally), and we haven’t coped … They know they’re not delivering the level they should for AFL players.”

Hinkley was a guest on FoxFooty’s On The Couch in Melbourne last night, two days on from a shock four-point loss to lowly Carlton.

Panellist Jonathan Brown, a former captain and triple-premiership player with the Lions, challenged him on Port Adelaide’s depth, suggesting the only top-line players were captain Travis Boak and Robbie Gray, last year’s Coaches’ Association Player of the Year, along with rising stars Chad Wingard and Ollie Wines.

“I look through and can’t see a lot of other A-graders in there,” argued Brown.

“That’s your job to look at the list and make those decisions,” replied Hinkley.

“I have great faith in the group and that won’t break. I know what they’re capable of … We’ll stick together and get it done.”

But he wouldn’t buy into talk of whether the Power, at 5-7, could rally to make the finals.

“I believe that we’ll compete really hard in our next game (against Sydney),” he said.

“I’m not going to sit here and (buy into) a distraction of (what happens) in three months’ time.”

But he conceded his side’s inconsistency was derailing its season.

This time last year, Hinkley went on FoxFooty’s sister program, AFL360, and spoke of challenging his players to dream big dreams.

“I challenge them a little bit on that: ‘Why can’t it be now? Why can’t it be this year for us?’,” he said at the time.

Now, though, he is challenging them simply to think one week at a time.

“We’ve said to the boys: ‘This is the way we play; let’s go and play a style Port Adelaide wants to play’,” he said last night.

“We’ve been able to do it and we’ve demonstrated that at times this year, but as a team we haven’t been able to complete the task we need to consistently. We’ve been off a bit, and we’re paying the price for it.”

He says players had lost some “belief” and were “lacking a bit of braveness”, with slow ball movement contributing to the side going from number one in the AFL for keeping the ball in its forward half to eleventh.

“We’ve caused ourselves to slow down as much as the opposition (has),” said Hinkley.

“Our numbers say we haven’t changed as far as percentage of (using the) corridor, the boundary-line, things like that…it’s just the speed we’re doing it.”

Losing pacy wingmen Jared Polec and Matt White to injury has hardly helped the cause, as Port’s lauded “run and carry” has slowed to a crawl at times, but Hinkley backs his players to make amends in the second half of the season.

“We’re in the business of winning, that’s the way you’re judged,” he said.

“Our season so far hasn’t been anywhere near what we’d expect of ourselves.”