Port Adelaide president David Koch says the Power must play finals in 2017

THERE is no hiding from expectation at Port Adelaide this season. Club president David Koch has declared the Power must play finals in 2017.

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley. Picture: Sarah Reed

PORT Adelaide’s refit has begun – and with intense internal pressure from Power president David Koch upon coach Ken Hinkley and his team to deliver AFL finals this season.

“We must make finals,” Koch told radio FIVEaa on Friday night as Hinkley revealed his new-look line-up and strategies at an internal trial at Alberton Oval.

“Last year we failed; it’s two years in a row we've failed. It can't be a third.” Hinkley, who is on contract to the end of next season, says he is not worried by the increasing pressure – both internally and externally – to restore the Power to the AFL’s top-eight rankings and finals in September after finishing ninth in 2015 and 10th last year.

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“We’ve underperformed (in 2016); you can’t hide from that,” Hinkley said.

“But I don’t worry – I do my job. And if (there are not positive results), you get what you deserve.”

Hinkley describes the summer as having delivered “significant change” to the Power’s football program. And it just may work if the new glimmer of hope shown at the internal trial at Alberton holds up against AFL rivals in the premiership season.

Ken Hinkley talks to Jared Polec. Picture: Sarah Reed

So what did the 4000 Power fans who broke their summer fast on football to be at Alberton learn of what could unfold as their winter feast? Plenty from a trial game in which the preferred 22, playing in black, beat the would-be 22, wearing white, by 50 points – 14.11 to 7.3.

On the ruck puzzle, Hinkley is preferring Patrick Ryder to lead the battery with Jackson Trengove as his partner. They worked against the pairing of Matthew Lobbe and Billy Frampton in the first half until Hinkley took Ryder out of the game at half-time.

In the new-look attack, it is Charlie Dixon and former defender Trengove in the key roles. Ryder and Trengove swap between ruck and attack leaving veteran forward Justin Westhoff to play as that free-roaming swingman. There was a notable move of Westhoff to the wing often during this practice game.

Hinkley has grand enthusiasm for the Dixon-Trengove tandem saying: “They could scare opposition (defences); both are physical and they like to hurt.” Mature recruit Brett Eddy certainly enhanced his chances to gain promotion from the rookie list – and add to the Power’s forward options – by perfectly contesting for a mark and scoring a goal in his first play.

Former vice-captain Hamish Hartlett has converted from the midfield unit to half-back – and his read of the play and command of his team-mates appears invaluable to a defence that repeatedly lost composure and shape under pressure last season.

Jackson Trengove snaps a goal. Picture: Sarah Reed

Of the new faces at Alberton, the Power’s second pick in last year’s AFL national draft – strong-bodied midfielder Sam Powell-Pepper – is true to all the encouraging reviews of being a teenager ready to play AFL as fellow midfielder Ollie Wines was immediately after he was drafted in 2012.

Powell-Pepper, 19, and inexperienced running defender Riley Bonner appear certain to be regular features in this new-look Power.

SCOREBOARD

PA BLACK 3.2 5.6 11.10 14.11 (95) PA WHITE 3.0 5.1 7.2 7.3 (45)

GOALS – Black: Young 4, Dixon 3, Krakouer, Trengove 2, Ebert, Polec, Wingard. White: Frampton, Johnson 2, AhChee, Drew, Eddy.

Originally published as Port Adelaide president David Koch says the Power must play finals in 2017