Ken Hinkley sits down with Mark Robinson to discuss Port Adelaide’s Generation Now, Jason Horne-Francis and more
The numbers stack up for Connor Rozee and Zak Butters as emerging midfielders. See how they compare to some of the best in the comp at the same stage.
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Tucking into a medium-well done sirloin steak, with a side of spuds, Ken Hinkley seemingly doesn’t have a worry in the footy world.
He rarely radiates worry, Kenny, although he is pragmatic about 2023. His team needs to bounce back because if it doesn’t, he just might miss out on a very exciting period ahead for Port Adelaide.
We’ll go back before we go forward.
After two consecutive preliminary final finishes in 2020-21, when Port won more games than any team, his side bombed to a 0-5 start before recovering for a 10-7 finish, which included four losses by 14 points or a fewer.
At zip-five, there wasn’t a lot of room for error.
That’s mostly forgotten on this Monday night because not even the premiership coach likes to dwell in the past, let alone coaches starting their 11th season without a grand final appearance.
But constant focus on Hinkley in the pre-season is a bit tedious, isn’t it? At least give him a month of serious footy.
For the veteran coach, 2023 is not about the soon-to-arrive Generation X, it’s more the Generation Now, such has been Port’s ability to regenerate on the run.
And the two emerging stars — could they be superstars? — are Connor Rozee and Zak Butters, two 22-year-olds who at that magical crossroad of their young careers.
Do they become Port Adelaide greats or just another two very good players?
“They are both very special,” Hinkley says.
“They now have to do the work but what I see is two young men wanting to not just be very good players, they want to be great players.’’
Hinkley does not play favourites.
In Rozee, the smooth-moving and gifted onballer, Hinkley identifies “elite level preparation’’ as the stark difference this pre-season.
“I think he’s a player who understands more about what it takes to be great,’’ he said. “He had a little taste last year and I think it was an appetiser.
“We had to ask Connor and Zak to do a lot in the first few years and they’ve delivered it to be fair to them both, but Connor last year at round 5, he really took hold of his own career.’’
It was against Carlton in round 5 at the MCG.
The Blues led Port by 49 points at halftime. The game was done and purpose was needed and Rozee, at half-forward, was shuffled into the midfield.
He would finish with 24 disposals and a goal, Port rallied to lose by three points and a star was born.
He already was a talent — he did kick five goals in his third game at the Gabba — but when history charts the turning points of the No. 20, that day at the ‘G will be considered movement day.
So, who made the move?
“The coaches,’’ Hinkley said.
Which one in particular? “I think the coaches collectively made the move. It turned everything around. I can remember a conversation on the flight home with Connor that night. I just felt that moment, that day, Connor made a statement himself,” he said.
“Our obligation as coaches to him was to make sure he knew what that obligation meant and that was around being capable of being physical and combative and playing footy the right way.
“He knows what he’s capable of
“He’s realising his skill set is quite unique, it’s burst and power, he can jump, do some pretty exciting things, but he does it with a bit more belief about what he can do.’’
In Butters, there’s no mistaking the similarities with retired champ Robbie Gray.
He contains a harder edge than Rozee, as well as the envious ability to assess space and movement and disposal in a near instant. It is a trait of the superior.
“Rob liked Zak’s vision, we all like Zak’s vision,’’ Hinkley said. “We picked him at No. 12 in the draft, he wasn’t 25 or 35 in a very good draft. It’s one of the best drafts you’re ever going to see. It’s the King brothers, Walsh, Rozee, Bailey Smith.
“Zak is a different player. He’s got an elite level of decision-making in and around traffic. Robbie Gray handed his jumper over to him for an obvious reason.
“We see composure and leadership with Zak and what he’s trying to bring.
“He’s such a competitive individual, but he is now starting to understand he’s got to bring other people with him to help other people get to those levels as well.’’
The coach anticipates Butters will be mid-forward more than forward-mid. “He’s tough, too tough, but he’s going to bang into Petracca, Dangerfield and Fyfe and they’re big bodies,” Hinkley said.
Together, Hinkley has noted a “changing of the baton’’ at training in regards to the two tyros and their older teammates. “The handing over of training standards is coming more and more clear,’’ he said.
“They’re leading the way those two young men.’’
With vice-captain Ollie Wines still progressing from knee battles and with Travis Boak, at 34-years-old, being managed “carefully’’ across pre-season, he’s been managed in a different way, the lead roles have been snapped up by the likes of Rozee and Butters.
“They’ve had to step up and they’ve really stepped up,’’ Hinkley said.
For Hinkley, who enters the final year of his contract, his two young players are the poster boys of Generation Now.
“It has to be,’’ he said. “It’s time and I think both boys like to be in that moment.’’
Xavier Duursma is slated for one wing, Bergman and Bonner on the other side, and there’s mistaking the expectation on 24-year-old Todd Marshall as the key forward out of the square.
And, of course, there’s Jason Horne-Francis, who will be another mid-forward.
The noise hasn’t abated since Horne-Francis returned home.
While North Melbourne, in part, saw a disengaged kid, Port has seen boots and all competitor.
If push came to shove, Horne-Francis would probably say he just didn’t want to be at North Melbourne and being 18-years-old, he probably wasn’t capable of dealing with it all.
The fact is, Hinkley says, the lure of family was too overwhelming for the young man.
Horne-Francis lives with his mum and dad, sister and three-year-old brother, Fabian Jnr, who Hinkley says smiling, dags around behind his 19-year-old older brother at the footy club. “He loves it,’’ he said.
As well, Horne Francis lives at Christie Downs, a suburb about an hour’s drive in peak hour, from the training home at Alberton “He’s very close to his family,’’ Hinkley said
Asked the expectation of his precious recruit, Hinkley said: “He was taken at No. 1 and the No. 1s are generally great players.’’
He anticipates a midfield rotation of Rozee, Butters, Boak, Horne-Francis, Wines, Drew and Powell-Pepper, with enforcer Charlie Dixon in the ruck. It’s a group which has been rebuilt without fanfare and real acknowledgment.
And, dare we say it, it’s hardly going to be a meat and potatoes midfield.
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