Port Adelaide’s Ollie Wines opens up about how difficult this season has been, as he prepares to help lead the side to AFL finals
Port Adelaide co-captain Ollie Wines is determined to make up for lost time in a frustrating season that has been punctuated with injury and spells in the SANFL.
- Selection headache for Power ahead of clash with Kangaroos
- Could another debutant be in line for Port?
- Greatest school footy teams: CBC and Pulteney Grammar
- The pair to win: Jonas and Wines lead the way
Port Adelaide’s co-captain Ollie Wines has opened up about his frustration in the face of one the toughest seasons of his 139-game AFL career.
Wines’ 2019 has been interrupted by a series of injuries — a dislocated shoulder in pre-season, a fractured ankle in May and a broken thumb in July — which have kept the club’s joint leader either sidelined or finding match fitness in the SANFL.
Having played 10 games for the Power and two games for the Magpies this year, Wines revealed how hard it had been watching his team from the wrong side of the boundary line.
“Particularly with the role I was given this year with (Tom) Jonas as co-captain and you want to put your best foot forward and lead the boys and not having that opportunity to do as much as I would have liked has been frustrating and having to watch a lot of football on the sidelines,” he said.
“My initial injury of hurting my shoulder wakeboarding (in January) which I was really frustrated with myself for doing, it’s sort of all added up.”
The tough midfielder had been due to play his third SANFL game on Saturday, but was a late inclusion for the Power’s 10-goal win over Sydney after Zak Butters was unable to recover from a bruised sternum.
Wines admitted he’d also been frustrated with the selection committee’s decision to play him in the SANFL instead of giving the co-captain automatic inclusion in the AFL side to play the Swans.
“Initially I was pretty frustrated with the call, but that was probably initially, but give it 24 hours and once I could think a little bit logical, it sort of made a bit of sense, I could see where (coach) Ken (Hinkley) was coming from,” he said.
“I’ve had a really interrupted year. I’d only played nine games to last week, so I understood I needed that little bit of game time in the SANFL, nothing replicates games, training doesn’t, so I needed to have that run under the belt and run the legs out, but fortunately I came in for Zak late and was able to get through.
“Probably traditionally (a skipper should come straight back in), but obviously at the moment we’re going with co-captains, so it probably lightens the load on that decision … having ‘Jonah’ in the team makes that call a little bit easier that we have got that one captain there.”
The Power coaches will again be faced with tough calls at the selection table this week with Wines — wearing a thumb guard — getting through his first game back unscathed, Butters looking to have recovered from his bruised sternum, out of favour ruck Scott Lycett among the Magpies’ best in the SANFL and defender Ryan Burton back to running at full pelt after overcoming his hamstring injury.
Wines said Burton got through Wednesday’s full training session and should be available for selection for the side that heads to Marvel Stadium for the Power’s clash with North Melbourne on Saturday night.
“I think (Burton) got up to his max speed he needed to get to, so from what we could see he looked OK, it will be a decision for match committee whether he comes straight back in or through the SANFL,” Wines said.
“I guess it’s just great to see another one coming back into contention and this week I think we’ll only have three unavailable to select from, so it’s good to have everyone right at this time of year.”
Wines said he was as hungry as ever to extend the Power’s season beyond the two remaining minor round games.
“We have an incredible opportunity after these last two games to play finals and we’ll go out there and attack the next two weeks and hopefully extend the season,” he said.