Robbo: How Hinkley learnt to shake off the pressure ahead of crucial 2024 season
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has become accustomed to living with the pressure, revealing to MARK ROBINSON how he dealt with a club legend calling his job “untenable”.
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Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has learnt to live with the pressure of a career dotted by highs and a cavalcade of criticism for failing to win a premiership.
Signed to a two-year deal in August last year after a whirlwind season of speculation about when he would sign a new contract, already there’s an improbable narrative that Hinkley could be coaching for his future if early results elude him.
“I don’t feel, for a long time, that I haven’t felt under pressure, if that makes sense,’’ Hinkley said after landing in Melbourne on Wednesday.
“It feels like it’s been there eight of the 11 years I’ve coached.
“My first two years were a bit honeymoon-ish, we went from nowhere to the finals and the preliminary final, and from there, once you set the bar pretty high, the expectations grew.
“From there, it’s been a little bit up and down, a good run of home and away footy in recent years but clearly we haven’t won when we needed to win in finals.”
He said pressure was there “everyday’’ for all coaches.
“It doesn’t matter what your last performance was or almost what you next performance will be because it’s there every day,’’ he said.
“I feel pressure playing every team in the competition every round … I’m sure every coach does.”
The “Kenny’s in trouble” headline is now wasted ink on him, he says.
“I don’t spend time on it now,” he said.
“Once, I spent too much time worrying about it, but now I don’t. I understand the industry I’m in that at some point, whether it’s pressure or just time, it just happens.
“I control what I can, you live in the moment and do your best now.”
Port signed Hinkley to the new deal after a season which produced 13 consecutive wins after losing two of its first three matches, which at the time prompted Port great Warren Tredrea to famously declare that Hinkley’s position was untenable.
Tredrea is currently in a battle with another Port great, Bruce Abernethy, for a vacant board position, which popular opinion has Tredrea winning.
Hinkley scoffed at Tredrea’s initial comments and on Wednesday reaffirmed his indifference to the comment on Wednesday.
“In the industry of media, you have to do a job and you make comments on plenty of things, and that’s no different for someone like Warren,” he said.
“Do we reflect on those comments as much as we reflect on coaching performances? Probably not.”
After losing their two finals last year to Brisbane (48 points) and to the Giants (23 points), Port recruited heavily in the off-season, landing backmen Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and Esava Ratugolea, and ruckmen Jordon Sweet and Ivan Soldo.
Hinkley dismissed the suggestion Port was “all in’’ this season, meaning it’s premiership or bust, instead saying its coaches and list management team identified areas which needed improving and depth.
“Every team is all-in every year,” he said.
Port starts the season as the 10th oldest list, and in fact, in the first week of the finals last year was the youngest team among the eight finalists.
“Everyone said we needed ruckmen and key backmen and we said that as well, and we got them,” Hinkley said.
Hinkley, 57, has coached the Power since 2013 and has a winning percentage nearing 60, which is fourth highest of the current coaches behind Craig McRae (75 per cent), Chris Scott (70.6) and John Longmire (63).
The other three have premierships to their name, while Hinkley’s best finish is three preliminary finals.
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