Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley will play Jared Polec even if the wingman makes early call to leave Alberton
PORT Adelaide wingman Jared Polec is expected to take up a ‘godfather offer’ with North Melbourne - and Power coach Ken Hinkley will keep playing him even if he makes an early call on plans to leave.
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PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley wants - perhaps against genuine hope - wingman Jared Polec to turn down a “godfather offer” from North Melbourne to maintain the Power’s record of holding its valued AFL players.
But if - as expected - Polec wants to accept a five-year, $3.5 million offer from the Kangaroos, Hinkley will not banish the 25-year-old midfielder from Alberton before the season ends.
Hinkley on Friday - as the Power closed its training program for the critical test with West Coast at Adelaide Oval - highlighted Port Adelaide will not follow other AFL clubs in exiling players who decide in-season to change teams.
“I have a season to win this year,” Hinkley said of keeping Polec on AFL call regardless of the uncertainty on his future at Alberton.
“I’m trying to win this year. And I need everything available to me this year.
“That’s what I am worried about (this season) - and that is what I focus on.”
Hinkley - unlike the Gold Coast with co-captain and free agent Tom Lynch - is not demanding an instant response from Polec amid growing speculation on his future.
“When Jared’s ready to say, ‘I’m staying’ ... that will do,” Hinkley said with overstated optimism. “Take ‘Polly’ out of it, he is like any AFL player who at this time of the year - with a decision to be made on quite unique offers - they have to take time.
“That is a big decision for anyone.
“Anyone in any job - and is happy in the job they are doing now - suddenly has this massive offer come, you have to sit there and spend some time (considering the option). It is a really significant decision for anyone to make.”
Polec, who joined the Power at the end of 2013 in a go-home trade from Brisbane, has four suitors - the Kangaroos, Sydney, St Kilda and last-ranked Carlton.
Port Adelaide has two options against these bids - to either offer Polec more than the current three-year contract, just as it did with Hamish Hartlett in 2016 when his contract was extended to five years to bat away offers from North Melbourne and Richmond; or to lift the $1.5 million salary Polec can collect at Alberton in the next three years.
But the $2 million gap between Alberton and Arden Street appears too much for the Power to close without doing damage to its own recruiting plays.
“We have things in place through (list manager) Jason (Cripps) and his team to make sure we don’t go outside a structure that works for the whole list - and not just for one part of the list,” Hinkley said.
“Jared, I’m sure, still wants to be part of Port Adelaide. And we want him to be part of Port Adelaide.
“He clearly has a significant offer that he has to consider.”
Polec’s form has remained strong amid the moves from four AFL rivals to take him from Port Adelaide.
“That tells me,’ Hinkley said of Polec, “that the Kangaroos, or whoever wants to offer him good money, are looking at a pretty good player. He has been in bloody good form. He’d be in our top two or three in our best-and-fairest.”
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au
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