Port Adelaide does do one thing consistently well - beat the defending AFL premier and back up
PORT Adelaide has beaten six defending AFL premiers in the last seven matchups under Ken Hinkley - and backed up a win after all those victories. The Power will try to make it a perfect seven on Thursday night.
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PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley can be sure of one character trait in his inconsistent Power team on Thursday night - his players do not suffer a letdown after playing and beating the AFL premier.
The Power on Thursday night - six days after defying Richmond at home - will seek a perfect 7-0 record under Hinkley in AFL home-and-away games after playing the league champions.
Port Adelaide faces the non-contending Western Bulldogs at Adelaide Oval with a new line-up that significantly loses its best-performed defender Tom Jonas (hamstring) and axes high-profile recruit Jack Watts.
Since 2013, the start of Hinkley’s tenure at Alberton, Port Adelaide has beaten the AFL premiers in six of seven duels in the home-and-away series (the only loss was to Hawthorn in 2016).
And each game after a demanding clash with the defending champion has been followed up by a win, including a Showdown triumph against the Crows in 2015.
But most comforting for Hinkley - at a time when his team has to answer just where it fits in the AFL race to September’s top-eight finals - is the Power’s appetite for contested football has grown in the past month, particularly with the return of second-year midfielder Sam Powell-Pepper.
This will be critical in the expected rain at the Oval on Thursday night.
“The conditions are going to make it a real slog, so you are going to have to be the hardest-working team,” Hinkley said.
“We want to see some unconditional effort.
“We’ve had a strong month, really strong in that space (of contested football). And we get a strong challenge in that area from the Bulldogs. We know that, we expect that - and we look forward to it.”
Hinkley has dropped Watts, after 11 games with a 13.6 score count, to recall young forward Todd Marshall. He has replaced small forward Jake Neade with North Melbourne recruit Lindsay Thomas. And tall defender Jack Hombsch replaces Jonas, who jagged a hamstring in the first term against the Tigers but played on.
Marshall returns to the AFL after an eight-week break to deal with the death of his father in May, six months after his mother died. Thomas plays for the first time since being suspended for a heavy bump on Geelong marker Scott Selwood on April 21.
Watts’ fall to the SANFL follows concern with his form, in particularly his intensity at the contest that would be exposed in a rain-drenched scrap with the Bulldogs.
“Jack knows his form hasn’t been at the level he would like it to be and he understands the reasons for it,” Hinkley said. “We still want Jack part of our side. We brought Jack here for that reason, to help us, he’ll still help us a lot.”
But the question lingers on how Port Adelaide plays Watts, Marshall, Charlie Dixon and veteran swingman Justin Westhoff in the same attack. Beyond the form issue, Watts could not stay in a line-up carrying also Marshall and Dixon in the wet.
“Marshall and Watts are not dissimilar; Marshall’s 197cm, Watts is (195) tall, so we probably worried about having the extra tall (against the Bulldogs),” Hinkley said. “But it’s the balance going forward, too.
“Everyone knows Todd Marshall is quite an exciting young player. He has had some unfortunate stuff to deal with; personal tragedy. But as soon as he was available, we were going to want him back in the side … and you can’t fit everyone in. It is as simple as that.
“There comes a point when we like to reward great form (in the SANFL). We like to reward winning teams - everyone knows that about me - but there is a point where you need to also reward the form underneath (in the reserves in the State league).”
AFTER THE CHAMPS
How Port Adelaide has performed after playing the AFL premiers under coach Ken Hinkley.
2013 BEAT Sydney, beat Collingwood
2014 BEAT Hawthorn, beat Melbourne
2015 BEAT Hawthorn, beat Adelaide
BEAT Hawthorn, beat Gold Coast
2016 LOST to Hawthorn, beat North Melbourne
2017 BEAT W BULLDOGS, beat Gold Coast
2018 BEAT Richmond, play W Bulldogs
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au
Originally published as Port Adelaide does do one thing consistently well - beat the defending AFL premier and back up