Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley feels the pain as Power crashes out of finals race with 22-point loss to Essendon
PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley says his side has “let every everybody down” and he is “as wounded as I’ve felt” after the Power’s slide from the AFL’s top four to missing the finals with six losses in their last seven games.
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A SHATTERED Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley says he has never felt so “wounded’’ after his side lamely crashed out of the finals race against Essendon at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.
He said his club had let down it’s supporters after slumping from 11-4 to 12-10 to miss the finals and vowed to spend the off-season searching for answers.
“It’s as wounded as I’ve felt, I reckon, in my time in footy’’ Hinkley said after the 22-point defeat.
“Wounded, remember that, I’m not dead, and I won’t be. But we’ve copped one as a team and we are in it together.
“It’s not just me, but all the coaches. But, gee, I look forward to it, I really look forward to it.
I won’t go down easily.’’
Hinkley said “this footy club has let everyone down’’.
“That’s us as a football department, we understand that, we’ll look at it really, really closely and we’ll make the decisions that have to be made,’’ he said.
“To me it’s really clear that when we play good footy we compete contest-wise and we hunt.
“When we play really poor footy we drop off in those two areas. And without the contest Port Adelaide is nothing.
“That’s what they are — a contest and hunt team. And we haven’t been that.
“If you look at the last six weeks that’s where we’ve broken, let’s not be unsure, we’ve broken in that space.
“The contest is where it broke. That is clear to me what happened.
“The why, give me some time, that will come. We’ll work through that with the coaches and we’ll come up with the why and we’ll be really certain with the why.’’
Port struggled to score in the second half of the season and Hinkley said he would live with any criticism of his game style.
“Was it personnel, was it game style, if it’s game style I will own it,’’ he said.
“I don’t mind the criticism, we deserve criticism when we perform like we did in the last six weeks.
“I’m not going to avoid it, I look forward to it, it will make me better.
“The disappointment is real and we as a footy club have to get harder to get where we want to go.
“We’ve shown enough good stuff, everyone has seen enough good stuff, so why do we fall off in big moments?
“It’s been a trend and I know the what, I’ll do some more work and I’ll find some details as to the why — and then we’ll fix it.’’
Hinkley said he had spoken to classy wingman Jared Polec — wanted by North Melbourne — about his future but had yet to be given a clear picture of his stay-or-go decision.
“We are prepared for both scenarios, we understand it, every club does,’’ he said.
“It’s part of the industry now and we will deal with that. If Jared decides to move on, he’ll move on and we’ll find a replacement.
“You always do, it’s part of the game. We’ll get some young players coming into our club again this year and we’ll find the next young player.
“Discussions have been pretty good, pretty honest. He hasn’t made his mind up yet, that’s what I have been told.
“And I actually trust “Polly’in that space. I’d say he’s got an incredibly difficult decision based on emotion and financially.’’
Hinkley said he hopes rugged midfielder Joe Atley, who also has been linked to the Kangaroos, stays at Alberton.
“I’d expect he would still be at the club,’’ he said.
Hinkley said Port would be targeting a “mid-forward finisher’’ in the off-season.
“We’ll be a harder club,’’ he said.
“We’ll train strongly through the summer and push harder. We haven’t got where we want to go so we will push harder.’’
andrew.capel@news.com.au