AFL 2023: Ollie Wines backs coach Ken Hinkley in, says criticism is ‘unfair’
Ken Hinkley is under the pump, but Ollie Wines thinks it’s the players who need to step up and take ownership rather than the Power coach.
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Port Adelaide vice-captain Ollie Wines has leapt to the defence of senior coach Ken Hinkley, saying it is unfair that he is already having to deal with speculation around his job just three games into the season.
Wines also says the players should be the ones copping it rather than Hinkley, and a 1-2 start to the season would have been expected by many when it comes to the Power.
After the Power lost to fierce rivals Adelaide in the Showdown by 31 points on Saturday night Port Adelaide’s only AFL premiership captain Warren Tredrea said Hinkley’s position at the club was “untenable”.
Hinkley is out of contract at the end of the season and he and the club have agreed to put off talks around his future until August.
On Tuesday Wines said the pressure Hinkley was being put under externally was unfair.
“From a players perspective I certainly think it is unfair and it probably comes down to he is a single individual whereas with a team there are 44 players,” he said.
“So it is hard for him and we feel for him but we understand that we are a big part in our inconsistency at the moment.
“We feel for Ken and the pressure that he is under and we want to get the pressure off him.”
The Showdown loss comes after the Power were belted by Collingwood, after starting their season off with a fine win over Brisbane.
Wines said a 1-2 start would have been considered par for the Power by many.
“I don’t think it is a coaching issue at the moment, it is execution by the players so it should be more on us than Ken,” he said.
“We are sitting here at 1-2, it is not the end of the world.
“At the start of the season if we asked the media what we thought they would be at they would probably say 1-2.
“I don’t think we are by any means panicking three games into the season, it is a long season with 23 games now.
“We have full faith in Ken and as players we know we need to play better on game day because once the siren goes the coaches can make some moves but they can’t do it for us.”
Wines said the messaging from the coaches was getting through to the players, but they weren’t executing.
“Teams are playing us the way that we don’t want to be played, they are working us out a little bit so we need to find ways through that,” he said.
“I think they know that we want to play front half footy and lock the ball in the forward 50.
“So they are trying to possess the ball a little bit on us, work down and take time and possession off us.”
The Power take on Sydney at the SCG on Saturday before hosting the Western Bulldogs at Adelaide Oval in Gather Round.
Wines said he was hoping to hit full form shortly after an interrupted pre-season following knee surgery.
“I didn’t really train until the intraclub so I understood it would take four or five weeks until I am up and running,” he said.
“But I feel like I am about to click into gear soon.”
PORT GREAT NOMINATES HINKLEY REPLACEMENT
Port Adelaide’s only AFL premiership captain Warren Tredrea says Ken Hinkley’s position at the club is “untenable” as the Power looks to avoid another poor start to the season.
The Power great also said it “seems like the board members and the senior management aren’t listening to the fans at all”.
Hinkley’s contract expires at the end of the season and he and the club have agreed to not discuss his future until August.
The Power lost to fierce rivals Adelaide by 31 points in the Showdown on Saturday night.
“There is an element of fans disconnect with their board and with their coach and I just look where Ken Hinkley sits, he has been there for 10 years, he is contracted until the end of the year and for me it looks, albeit it Round 3, it just looks untenable where they have Sydney in Sydney and then the Bulldogs at home in Gather Round,” Tredrea said.
Tredrea and Hinkley have clashed before, when the former captain was scathing of the Power and the tactics employed in the preliminary final horror show to the Western Bulldogs in 2021.
And in 2019, Tredrea wrote in his column for The Advertiser that if Hinkley, and then Crows coach Don Pyke, wasn’t contracted past that year, he would be out of a job.
“I’ve butted heads with him in the past, and that is nothing personal, it is just performance,” Tredrea said on the Big Deal podcast on Monday.
“I get it is early in the season but for me it is you know what he (Hinkley) is not going to be there in 2024.
“I can’t see it, if he does well then I will be the first to say well done, but right now it just looks untenable.”
News Corp revealed in February Tredrea approached the Power to immediately join the club’s board.
But this was rejected by president David Koch, who said he was uncomfortable about making a “captain’s call” and appointing Tredrea over another club past player and legend, and said he should get involved with the club after 10 years away.
News Corp understands the club has invited Tredrea to significant events, but he has declined.
He said trying to get on the board was “not on the agenda for him” and said he understood if critics used that against him.
“I’m not going to deny that, but what I am going to say is that I have never been more disconnected from my club than I have been and I didn’t like what was going on,” he said.
Tredrea said he felt fans were getting sick of the Power “constantly talking up stuff” off the field and not delivering on the field.
“I think there is a disconnect between them and their members and it just doesn’t seem like they are on the same page,” he said.
“Because they are sick of the promises and they want to see action on the field.
“It just looks untenable for me.”
Tredrea said if the Power did look in a new direction, then his 2004 premiership teammate Josh Carr, who came from Fremantle in the off-season to be the club’s midfield coach, “could be ready to go”.
On Monday, Carr said he thought Hinkley was coaching well.
“He is staying in the moment and looking to improve,” he said.
“When we come in on a Monday, whether it is a win or a loss it is how can we get better.
“I’m really confident in us as a team that we are pushing the right things in the team, we haven’t quite nailed it yet but it is Round 3 but I’m sure we will be right.”
After the Showdown loss, Hinkley said the Power needed to find a way to stop leaking goals.
Carr said this would be a big focus.
“We didn’t defend as well as a team, so that is one area,” he said.
“And then in crucial moments in the game, that is not just in the last quarter throughout the game we had lapses.”
The Power will be sweating on whether key forward Charlie Dixon will be able to take on Sydney on Saturday night.
Dixon hurt his back against the Crows, which resulted in some hamstring discomfort.
He has had imaging and the Power are waiting to see how that settles down.
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