‘One of my proudest days’, says Ken Hinkley after Power upsets Swans

PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley’s overriding emotion on Saturday night was pride in his players and entire football club after the Power upset the Swans by 28 points at the SCG.

Port Adelaide's Travis Boak is chaired of the ground by Robbie Gray and Brad Ebert after his triumphant 200th game. Picture: Phil Hillyard

PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley’s overriding emotion on Saturday night was pride in his players and entire football club after the Power upset the Swans by 28 points at the SCG.

It was the Power’s first win at the SCG since 2006 and first over Sydney since 2013, in a dream start to the season.

“It’s a big win for us, obviously up in Sydney because we haven’t done it for such a long time,” Hinkley said.

“We’ve played in some pretty big games since I’ve been at the footy club, finals and stuff, but it’s certainly one of the proudest days I’ve had since I’ve been here.”

The win coincided with skipper Travis Boak’s 200th game and Hinkley said he was pleased that Boak could be rewarded.

“You don’t need milestone games to stand up, but it’s pretty special for a bloke like Travis who over his journey has made some pretty courageous decisions to be part of this footy club.

“I think he got a fair bit of payback today, which was good.”

Port won contested ball 161-139 and clearances 47-40 on the back of Ollie Wines, Brad Ebert and debutant Sam Powell-Pepper’s grunt work in the middle.

Powell-Pepper produced an inspired first game with 19 disposals and two goals.

“I’m sure there are some people, our recruiters and list managers, who would be very, very pleased with some of the decisions that were made in the off-season,” Hinkley said when asked about Powell-Pepper.

“We love what all our boys that have come to the club this year (bring), we’ve gone after a certain style of footballer and today Sam demonstrated that really well.

“It’s his first game, he’s got lots of footy to play yet, but he certainly brings that part of the game you love the most — that competitiveness.”

Despite the odds stacked against it, Port Adelaide came to Sydney with the belief they could at least be competitive.

“We knew the challenge, we absolutely respect the Swans and knew how hard they would be to play up here,” Hinkley said.

“But I just think some of the stuff we’ve worked really closely together as a football club over summer was starting to come through a bit.

“Our last JLT game was positive, the whole football club, the work that’s been done by everyone over summer to put a bit of belief back into us, we could come up here with at least some belief.”

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