Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley will take a safety in numbers draft approach
HE is under pressure to get immediate results but Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has reiterated that he will take a safety in numbers approach and won’t trade up for South Australian sensations Jack Lukosius and Izak Rankine in this year’s draft.
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HE is under pressure to get immediate results but Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has reiterated that he “won’t sell everything’’ to trade up for South Australian teenage sensations Jack Lukosius and Izak Rankine in this year’s draft.
While the Crows have made no secret of their desire to trade into the top three to secure one of the star pair — widely viewed as “once in a generation’’ talents — Hinkley says he won’t sell the farm to get them.
This comes despite the coach vowing to be “aggressive and leave no stone unturned to strengthen our list’’ and president David Koch putting the entire playing list on notice by saying “no one is off the trade table’’.
“My concern with doing that is that there is no guarantee with drafting whether a player is at the top end or not,’’ Hinkley said of the possibility of making a blockbuster trade to move up the draft order.
“We are in a really healthy position from a draft point of view.
“But I love the talent of four or five South Australian boys, not just the two obvious ones in Rankine and Lukosius.
“They look like being absolute superstars who you suspect would be gone in the first two or three picks but I don’t think any club would make the call to trade those picks unless it is heavily weighted in their favour.
“I’m not going to be one who sells everything for that.’’
The Power — coming off a horribly disappointing season where it slumped from equal-second after round 16 to miss the finals after losing six of its last seven games — appears resigned to losing classy wingman Jared Polec to North Melbourne while it is the frontrunner to secure the services of ruckman Scott Lycett from West Coast.
While Hinkley said Port, which finished 10th this season and hasn’t made the top four since finishing third in 2014, “will be looking at all options to strengthen our list’’, he indicated the club will focus on regenerating its underperforming list through the draft.
The Power — through some shrewd wheeling and dealing — is currently armed with picks nine, 21, 27, 45 and 46.
And if Polec, as expected, joins the Kangaroos on a massive five-year, $3.5 million deal, it should get the Roos’ first round pick (currently No. 10).
“If Jared Polec was to leave us we would get a first-round draft pick for him, we’ve already got our own first round pick (nine) and we’ve got St Kilda’s second round pick (21),’’ Hinkley said.
“That will give us three or four picks inside the top 25 or so, so we are in a healthy draft position.’’
This year’s draft pool is littered with quality Croweaters after SA dominated the AFL under-18 division one championships to win its first title since 2014.
Apart from key forward Lukosius, who played well in Woodville-West Torrens’ league qualifying final win against Sturt at Adelaide Oval on Sunday, and West Adelaide small forward/midfielder Rankine, classy North Adelaide utility Connor Rozee and big-bodied Central District midfielder Jackson Hately loom as top-12 picks.
South Adelaide midfielder Tom Sparrow — likened by some to a young Patrick Dangerfield — is the big draft bolter while Norwood’s Luke Valente, the SA under-18 captain, should be a top 30 selection.
The Power wants to secure both of its Next Generation Academy players, Eagles Kai Pudney and Martin Frederick, with later picks.
Pudney won this year’s McCallum-Tomkins Medal as the best player in the SANFL under-18s.