Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley credited 'help from above' after his playing group achieved a historic feat on Saturday night, claiming a club-record 12th-straight victory as the Power defeated Essendon at the MCG thanks to a Dan Houston post-siren match-winning goal.
The latest in a prolonged stretch of phenomenal form, the events of Saturday night were truly breathtaking, as Houston, Hinkley's reliable, long-kicking defender, launched from beyond 50 metres, with a wet, soggy ball, on an angle.
The determination of a goal required a heart-stopping score review but the vision was conclusive, as Houston's tremendous ball clearly crossed the whole line, despite the desperate efforts of Essendon's tall timber.
Addressing the media post-game at the MCG, Hinkley acknowledged his side wasn't quite at its scintillating best but stated his players are 'believers'.
"We hadn't had a great night, they missed some goals, we missed some goals, it was a battle of wills and we got in front," Hinkley said on Saturday evening.
"There's something going on at the moment for us, we're believers in hanging in and it seems to work."
Hinkley explained that while the fashion in which the Power won was incredible in its own right, it only capped off what had already been an 'emotional' and 'remarkable' week for Port Adelaide's long-tenured mentor.
"It's been a pretty special week for me, to be honest," Hinkley continued.
"I had another grandson born this week on Thursday, Ben, and then Miles, who's my other grandson, it was his birthday today, so it's been a pretty emotional week in lots of ways.
"There's been some special things happen to us as a footy club and to me and our family, it's just remarkable what's going on."
Hinkley revealed a message he relayed to his playing group shortly after the game, noting his belief that the Power 'got some help' from a higher power on Saturday.
"I said to the boys in there; 'There's some sort of story getting written at the moment' ... I thought we got some help today from above."
As if Saturday night's memorable triumph wasn't bizarre enough, abnormal circumstances confronted Hinkley's Power pre-game, as veteran ruckman Scott Lycett succumbed to injury just minutes before the first bounce, thrusting into action uncapped youngster Dante Visentini, whose Victorian-based parents had to make a mad dash to the home of football to witness their son's debut.
"As a young man (Visentini) coming over thinking [he] 'might be a chance', not really expecting to play, his family wasn't here, I was just talking to his dad in the room and he said he was on the couch and got here by quarter-time," Hinkley detailed.
"'Scooter' (Lycett) pulls out [with] two, three minutes to go (until the first bounce), he felt something in his knee so we just didn't take a chance, we had Dante, I think he was sitting up in the coaches' box at that point."
As for Lycett's knee ailment, Hinkley doesn't believe it's overly serious.
"No (we didn't think much of it), he'd had a little bit of a grumbly knee early in the week, we got here and we were more than comfortable and certain he was going to play, otherwise we wouldn't have brought him, there's no need to travel someone if you think there was any doubt that they weren't going to come up and play," he said.
"It's just one of those little incidents that happen, luckily enough it happened three or four minutes before the start of the game, if it happened three or four minutes into the game, you're down a play for the whole time, so we were lucky it didn't happen that way."
Port Adelaide will look to keep the good times rolling in Round 17 when it faces the reeling Gold Coast Suns at Adelaide Oval.
