Port Adelaide getting closer to top of massive AFL premiership mountain A YEAR ago Ken Hinkley closed his first AFL campaign as Port Adelaide coach issuing a strong message to his players that they were not to be satisfied with a semi-final appearance. The mountain they had started to climb would get even bigger in the off-season so they needed to work harder. Hinkley was still getting to know his group then. There was the same message — sort of — on Saturday night after the heartbreaking three-point loss to Hawthorn in the preliminary final at the MCG. Hinkley reiterated the Power would need to improve in a competition where standing still equates to falling back. But he did not need to say it like a warning or a crack that would be carried across the AFL’s wide media landscape to stare at his squad for the next six months. A year on Hinkley has come to know his players have a strong work ethic. Their willingness to return from leave early to endure an incredibly demanding fitness camp in the heat of Dubai told Hinkley he had a group he could trust to work hard to fulfil the opportunity to advance from contender to challenger for the AFL premiership. “I admire their character,” Hinkley said on Saturday night. “It won’t be because of lack of effort ... they will come back to work wanting to improve.” The journey Hinkley and his group began in London in November 2012 is taking Port Adelaide closer to a Grand Final and that second AFL premiership. What was learned on Saturday night — and pretty much throughout the season — is that the Power team has damaging speed, it has a strong fitness base and it has character that is not easily broken. These are the admirable new qualities of the Hinkley journey. But the Power also has — as remnants of the dark era — that costly way of turning over the ball and that problem of goalkicking accuracy that put 3.9 on the MCG scoreboard at quarter-time and not enough scoreboard pressure on Hawthorn. Only four times in the last 15 games of season 2015 did the Power kick more goals than behinds. So where is Port Adelaide on that mountain Ken Hinkley highlighted after the 2013 semi-final loss to Geelong at the MCG? It is in need of another ruckman. Port walked the tightrope with Matthew Lobbe all season after losing Jarrad Redden to two rounds of knee surgery and Brent Renouf to a season-ending knee injury. It also needs another key forward after being left disappointed by John Butcher this season. Paddy Ryder from Essendon would answer both those needs in one deal ... if Port Adelaide is not being used simply to increase Ryder’s value in a trade to Brisbane. There is much to admire from Port Adelaide’s game on Saturday night. There is so much to savour from a season that backed up last year’s progress and delivered more hope for next season. And in that well-grounded pragmatism that Hinkley delivers in his post-game presentations there was the reminder: “We’ve got to get better. “We don’t want to lose (preliminary finals), we want to play next week (in the Grand Final) ... and we’re not.” But Port Adelaide is getting closer. That doesn’t mean the mountain has stopped getting bigger in front of the Power players. Hinkley simply doesn’t need to make the point so forcibly anymore. His squad has the appetite for hard work.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 11:41:33 +0000
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