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Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley is predicting a fired-up Gold Coast in response to a spray from their coach Damien Hardwick.

Damien Hardwick's spray aimed at Gold Coast's players has also been felt at Port Adelaide.

Hardwick's outburst has put Power coach Ken Hinkley on alert ahead of their Sunday afternoon clash in Queensland.

Hardwick avoided AFL sanction for using a profanity in his post-match media conference after the Suns' four-point loss to North Melbourne.

"As a footy club, we've got to grow the f*** up, to be perfectly honest. Excuse the language, but we've been in this situation too many times," Hardwick said.

Hinkley had no doubt Gold Coast's players would be stung into action on Sunday.

"Clearly they had a disappointing game last week, we heard what Damien said," Hinkley told reporters on Thursday.

"We expect that they will be breathing fire a little bit.

"And for us to go up there and match that and try to come away with a really, really good win ... (it) would be a massive win for us, if we can get it done up on the Gold Coast."

Hinkley said his players copped a similar roasting for their 79-point home loss to Brisbane three weeks ago - though not in blunt Hardwick fashion.

"I could tell he was disappointed. That was pretty clear, wasn't it?" he said.

"Clearly we expect them to be - I don't know if any more on edge than you normally have to be in this competition.

"But that's just reality, they didn't perform where they would have wanted to.

"We've done that ourselves three weeks ago, so you tend to get a response at this level. They're all pretty good teams."

Port hold sixth spot ahead of the trip to the Gold Coast, who sit in 12th place but have eight wins from nine home games.

"They're a very good team up there, they have beaten Essendon and Collingwood I think in their last couple of games up there," Hinkley said.

"So we're going to have have to be absolutely at our best.

"They have got some real, unbelievably good talent and they had some inconsistencies.

"But what team hasn't had inconsistencies this year? I might even include Sydney in it now because they have lost the last couple."