AFL round 5 Port Adelaide v Hawthorn: Power dismantle Hawks in bitter grudge match

He may be in his final season and entered Gather Round under the pump, but Ken Hinkley showed he’s still got a trick or two up his sleeve. Go inside the Power’s demolition of the Hawks.

He still has a trick or two up the sleeve, Ken Hinkley.

With everything that happened last time Port Adelaide took on Hawthorn in the semi-final, the taunt, the fine, the simmering tension, the scheduling of the two to wrap up Gather Round, the potential for a Jack Ginnivan aeroplane celebration, you could have taken it to the bank that Hinkley would have his side ready to run through a brick wall for him on Sunday night.

Zak Butters starred against the Hawks. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

As he walked across the ground giving a pre-match interview to Channel 7, Hinkley had that grin he sometimes has as he declared “we will be ready” and then followed up with “there might be a surprise”.

He knew, and it was a classic Hinkley team performance although they had the Power fans beginning to dread they were going to be on the wrong end of a record comeback at one stage.

The Power raced out of the blocks, with the intent, pressure, hunt, desire and poise that we have simply not really seen from Port so far this season.

Hinkley said this was actually back for most of the loss to St Kilda the previous week.

But what the Power did on Sunday night was on a different level.

Ken Hinkley had one of his best games with magnets in hand. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images.

The first quarter was going to tell us everything about Port Adelaide in this Gather Round grudge match – and boy it ended up being one.

If the intensity and pressure wasn’t there then it could have gotten ugly against a Hawthorn outfit that can seriously punish you once the Hawks get their tails up.

But come quarter time the Power faithful at a packed Adelaide Oval on Sunday night were on their feet in applause for the best footy played by Hinkley’s side since Port dismantled the then premiership favourites Sydney in Round 21 last year.

With the inspired tactical move of playing captain Connor Rozee as a halfback, the Power just simply blew the Hawks away from the off.

Rozee celebrates his first goal against the Hawks

Zak Butters had five clearances in the first quarter, Jason Horne-Francis and Sam Powell-Pepper threw themselves at nearly every loose ball.

Joe Richards showed why the Power rate him so highly with the ex-Collingwood small forward having two goals and eight disposals in the first term.

At the end of the first term the Power were up by 10 when it came to contested possessions, by six in clearances and stoppage clearances, and by four in the inside 50 count.

The Port Adelaide we know that wins the contested ball, is a clearance machine and then has repeated forward 50 entries and locks it in there was back.

And then there was Rozee.

Questioned for his performances over the last few weeks, and even if he was the most suitable skipper at Alberton, Rozee against the Hawks was the definition of a captains game.

While he lined up as defender Rozee would routinely press up high as the Power looked to stop the Hawks run out of defence.

Connor Rozee sinks a goal from long range

He first lined up on Ginnivan, but it soon became apparent it wasn’t about Rozee stopping the Hawks, it was how do you stop me Hawthorn?

When he got the ball Rozee was aggressive, with the Power still looking how to replace Dan Houston in defence.

His two goals in the first half were just rewards for his stunning game in the new role – one he did for North Adelaide in the 2018 SANFL grand final before he was drafted – but there were other acts that showed how Rozee led the way.

He put his body on the line to try and bump the bigger Josh Battle on the boundary, and in the final moments of the first quarter he stopped Cam Mackenzie from getting a cheap goal with a strong tackle to stop the Hawk.

A late double goal for Willie Rioli as tensions rise once again.#AFLPowerHawkspic.twitter.com/Nqgkfy1x4K

— AFL (@AFL) April 13, 2025

And when the Hawks were starting to get on top of the Power in the final minutes of the third quarter Rozee went forward and was then quickly an extra option behind the ball.

“It has been an inspired move by the coaching staff to put this man at halfback,” Brisbane legend Jonathan Brown said on Fox Footy.

When he gets back home after leaving Adelaide Oval on Sunday night Hinkley can look back on this one and enjoy a can of Coke, although the nerves would have surely been tested when the Hawks looked to be on for a huge comeback as they got the margin down to 22-points with eight minutes to go.

For all the talk that the succession plan in place would end blunting his ability to motivate his players this year, they gave absolutely everything for him on Sunday night.

Of course whether they can play like this beyond the big Gather Round grudge match against the Hawks is going to be the key as to whether this has reignited the Power’s season – given its hard run of fixtures coming up.

But this is going to be viewed as a special victory at Alberton.

And a classic Hinkley win at that.

Originally published as AFL round 5 Port Adelaide v Hawthorn: Power dismantle Hawks in bitter grudge match