Known for being a dead-eye in front of goal, Gunston entered the Hawks' second Launceston trip of the season with an uncharacteristic 10.12 to his name, but left with six straight goals as the Hawks ran out 12.8 (80) to 6.13 (49) winners.

The result momentarily bumped the 5-5 Hawks into the top eight, while the Power sit less than one per cent behind in ninth.

MATCH REPORT: Questions raised by Hawks victory

"Today [Gunston] was probably the difference between the two sides in terms of him being able to get his hands on the footy and then convert opportunities," Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said.

"On a pretty grubby day his polish with the ball in the front third of the ground was pretty important for us securing the victory.

"At the end of the day one guy kicked six goals in a game when there's only 18 goals scored for the game - it's pretty significant."

With a crowd of just 11,637 trickling into UTAS Stadium, Port Adelaide was also slow to show up, and took until the 10-minute mark of the second term to hit the scoreboard.

The margin then was 31 points, and never came back below three goals.

MORE FOOTBALL: Knee injury curses ScoMo's favourite Bridgenorth ruckman

Wingard to 'inject some life' into Hawks