Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley’s brave vision for the Power will test his hold on the frustrated supporter base

PORT Adelaide is in the spotlight after a difficult pre-season - and a damaging finish to last year’s AFL season. But the glare is most on how the coach, Ken Hinkley, performs.

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley will feel the heat this AFL season - as noted already from the Power fans who just four years ago were warmly accepting his “brave” theme at Alberton. Picture: Sarah Reed

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KEN Hinkley’s trademark word as Port Adelaide coach is “brave”.

He certainly was brave last week to take questions from his club’s members at the annual meeting at Alberton where president David Koch wanted the night to serve as closure on the failings from Season 2018.

And Hinkley was clearly stung - perhaps even felt a lack of respect - from the “passionate” fans’ vocal frustration with his gameplan, the collapse from an 11-4 count last season and a failure to win a final since 2014.

That last victory in the major round was at the now mothballed Subiaco Oval in Perth where the Power stunned Fremantle with a brave second-half comeback. Outside the venue there were delirious Port Adelaide fans wearing “In Ken We Trust” T-shirts chanting “Yes we Ken, yes we Ken ...”

More than four years on those T-shirts are like Subiaco Oval - fading in football’s memory bank. And it would be only a brave Power fan to wear one at Alberton today.

Port Adelaide is, as SEN commentator Gerard Whateley put it, in the “glare” this season as the AFL community watches how the Power responds to last year’s crumble from top-four contender to also ran ... and how Hinkley handles the spotlight on his work.

“Look forward to it ... let’s see what we produce,” Hinkley said of the focus on his club and his team.

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley looks on during a Power training session at Adelaide Oval. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty

Hinkley is persisting with the “brave” theme. “Bravest we have been for some time,” he says of the mentality of his team as it deals with the pressure to respond to last year’s failure.

Hinkley is the first man with no Port Adelaide history - as a player - to coach the club’s most-senior team since it advanced from the SANFL to the AFL in 1997. He has (wisely) embraced all the Port Adelaide concepts built in a suburban competition from 1870.

But with his experiences at Geelong in a national league, Hinkley knows that the AFL is not the SANFL - and Port Adelaide will not repeatedly play in grand finals and constantly win premierships, as was the case in the SANFL.

Port Adelaide was progressive in its thinking to boldly seek an AFL licence in 1990. But the Power is held to Magpie traditions, such as one captain - and having him wear the No. 1 jumper.

The man who challenged Hinkley at the annual meeting on his gameplan - in particular not marking players in free space - and his coaching highlighted how much Port Adelaide fans can hold onto the past to lose focus on the future.

Hinkley is not beyond criticism. He is not immune from scrutiny. Problem is, there is much more of it from within the Power fan base today as it seeks to be convinced on the team’s prospects for Season 2019.

It is Hinkley’s turn to be brave with what he believes is right for Port Adelaide. That captaincy call - “One, two or three,” as he put it to the members who howled him down - is the first test of his bravery for this AFL season.

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