Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley says he has asked himself ‘what was I thinking’ after wild Showdown celebrations
PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has revealed he got a “please explain” from his wife after his crazy celebrations in the coaches’ box following Port Adelaide’s thrilling Showdown win on Saturday night.
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KEN Hinkley admits he asked himself “what was I thinking” when reflecting on his wild celebrations in the coaches’ box following Port Adelaide’s thrilling Showdown win on Saturday night.
A usually reserved Hinkley screamed and pumped his fist after Steven Motlop’s game-winning goal in the final minute, then gestured and yelled 5-0 and 1-0 with his hands after the Power broke a five-game Showdown losing streak by five points.
Speaking on radio on Monday morning, Hinkley said his wife Donna also issued him with a ‘please explain’ when he got home.
“Crazy, a bit out of control, and you look back on it now and go ‘what were you thinking?’” Hinkley told Gerard Whateley on SEN radio.
“But that’s what footy does to you, that’s the emotion of the game, that’s how much these players put in and how hard they work and we’d been struggling to get over Adelaide for a period of time.
“We respect them greatly with the type of team they’ve been, an outstanding side, so in such circumstances to break the 5-0 was pretty important for us but the way we did it made things bubble over.
“I think she (wife Donna) used words like ‘silly, crazy and idiot’ but she understands too the emotions are crazy in the game we play and sometimes they’re out of control.
“Even for a coach I look back on that and think exactly that ‘what was I thinking?
“I just got wound up in it too much and I suppose at some stage you’re going to let that happen, and well that was the game for it to happen.”
Hinkley gave a glimpse into what the 1-0 hand gesture was all about at Friday’s pre-game coaches’ press conference.
“We don’t enjoy losing to the Adelaide Crows, we don’t enjoy losing to anyone, we have a run that we’re not enjoying, and we get an opportunity tomorrow night to try to correct that.
“We understand the quality of the opponent and we will give our absolute best to get back and make the number 1-0 in our favour.”
In the wide-ranging interview on Monday, Hinkley described how Motlop’s goal in the final minute of the game was the result of a set play and he was just glad they got the reward for executing it.
“When Jakey Neade got the ball to ground it gave us a fighting chance,” Hinkley said.
“And when we made the decision to bring Steven to the club we knew he was this type of player, a big moments player who can finish for you and we were pretty comfortable it was in his hands.
“We have some plans in place which is good, you never want to use them much but you do spend some time on those last second plays and say ‘if the boys are right and we’ve coached them well they’ll get this done’, it doesn’t mean it’s going to work but it gives you a chance.
“We could see it clearly what we were trying to do, something not just in the last little while but in a period of time these types of things, each side does it and for us we executed well under the real pressure and that gives us great confidence going forward.”
Hinkley said Saturday night’s win helped vindicate the club’s decision to bring Motlop, Tom Rockliff and Jack Watts to the club but knows that it will ultimately judged at the end of the year.
“At the start of the year they were the answer and everyone was saying it’s fantastic, then three or four weeks in it started to became a question, then on the weekend we saw the validation of why we brought some of those players in,
“That will get judged fair and square on our end result at the end of the year, not this week or last week or three weeks ago.
“They’ve all done their parts, they’ve got growth still to come, particularly Rockliff who is a high quality midfielder, Tom just hadn’t had the lead up he needed to an AFL season.
“We made a really courageous decision to leave him in the SANFL for a couple of weeks, Tom is a proud person he would have much rather been in the AFL side but I think we ran him into a bit of touch and that transferred to the AFL level.”
The Power flies out of Adelaide to China on Monday night to play Gold Coast in Shanghai for the second year in a row.
Hinkley said it was important the team supported the club in its expedition and he and the players were excited about it.
reece.homfray@news.com.au
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