Port Adelaide news 2021: ‘Squad mentality’ can take them all the way, says captain Tom Jonas

Port Adelaide came up short last year, but captain Tom Jonas says their ‘trusted’ all-inclusive rotation strategy will give them that crucial versatility to go the next step.

Karl Amon of Port Adelaide handballs during the AFL Practice Match between the Port Adelaide Power and the Adelaide Crows.

Captain Tom Jonas is embracing the expectation on Port Adelaide as a pre-season flag favourite, saying the club is even hungrier to achieve the ultimate success this year.

After the Power’s minor premiership and preliminary final appearance in 2020, all 17 rival skippers have tipped it to make the finals, three reckon it will reach the premiership decider and TAB has the club the equal-third favourite to win it all.

Coach Ken Hinkley has also doubled down on his “look out, we’re coming” comments from February last year by saying over summer “we’re ready” to win the grand final.

Some clubs talk about the process or making the top eight then seeing what happens, but Jonas is not toning down the messaging at Alberton.

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Tom Jonas dreams of bigger things in 2021 during Captain’s Day at Adelaide Oval.

Asked at the AFL’s captain’s day what 2021 looked like for the Power, the defender said: “Hopefully holding a premiership cup at the end of it”.

“Ken’s just verbalised what’s bubbling beneath the surface anyway,” Jonas later told The Advertiser.

“Our expectation as players that pull on the Port Adelaide guernsey is to win a premiership, regardless of where people think or don’t think you’ll finish.”

Port Adelaide surprised plenty of pundits by climbing from 10th in 2019 to a preliminary final last year.

It lost just three minor-round games but fell six points against Richmond at the second-last hurdle.

Jonas said the club was better placed heading into this season than it was 12 months ago.

“The biggest difference from our point of view is we’ve got a year of good footy behind us and a year of playing a system we’re really confident in, probably more games into the younger players as well,” he said.

“It doesn’t mean anything’s guaranteed but there’s a certain assurance about the way we play and the people you’re running out alongside.”

So much so that the Power is viewing the campaign with a soccer-like “squad mentality”.

Port Adelaide used a league-low 30 players in the truncated 17-game 2020 campaign but was confident it had enough depth to rotate players based on match-ups, opponents or sore spots this year.

Jonas and Steven Motlop will be eager to make amends for the preliminary final exit.

Jonas said the club was trying to remove the stigma that if a player was overlooked for one game, it meant they were out of favour.

“There’s going to be a lot of opportunity for our squad throughout the year,” he said.

“It might be the best match-up for the week, the best balance for whoever we’re playing and also if you’re sore or got an injury, rather than push through, we’ve got blokes who are fit and ready beneath who are able to step up and play the same role.”

Ex-Swan Aliir Aliir looms as a key cog in the Power’s squad rotation approach.

He starred as an intercepting defender the pre-season wins over Adelaide and Jonas said he could push forward or into the ruck, based on what the side needed.

“We got him into the club to be that Justin Westhoff utility replacement,” he said.

Jonas says squad rotation approach looms as a real game changer for Port.

FROM TRADE BRINK TO KEY ROLE IN PORT PREMIERSHIP PUSH

Ken Hinkley had plenty to smile about after his Port Adelaide side smashed Adelaide in its final pre-season game at Noarlunga.

But it was a question about Karl Amon’s continued improvement that had a grin plastered on Hinkley’s face from ear to ear as he spoke to media following the Power’s convincing 71-point win over their fierce rivals.

“He’s one of my great success stories, Karl,” Hinkley said.

“You get a lot of pride out of lots of things they do and you see and people who work really, really hard at their game.

“Karl was a really late pick, 70-odd I believe (pick 68 in 2013), and he has developed into such a good elite AFL player and he keeps growing his game and that’s what you are most pleased about as a coach, when they continue to grow.

“And he is growing his game on the inside and his run across the ground makes us at a better level and it adds to what Travis (Boak) and Ollie (Wines) can give us and the speed they bring out of the stoppage.”

Karl Amon of Port Adelaide dishes off a flying handball against the Crows.

As the Power looks for every one of their players to have a different trick up their sleeve in 2021, as they seek to go past the preliminary final stage, Amon has been deployed as an inside midfielder by Hinkley and was among Port’s first centre bounce ensemble.

And so far the shift from the wing looks to be another successful move by the Power.

At Noarlunga, Amon had 24 disposals, seven marks and four tackles with his speed causing some real damage in the midfield.

But it hasn’t all been good times for Amon at the Power.

The Victorian wasn’t loved by Port fans in his initial days at Alberton.

And after four years at the Power, following a “year from hell” 2018 — when he played only six games — led to Amon requesting a trade back to Victoria, and Port wasn’t against it even with the speedy wingman still under contract.

“Nothing really went right (in 2018),” Amon told The Advertiserin 2019.

“Ken (Hinkley) and I had a pretty honest conversation towards the end of the year and with me still having a year on my contract this year, we sort of explored the option to see if there was anything out there.

“I had a disappointing year, I was in and out and wasn’t playing the footy I wanted to be.

“We had a look but the fact was nothing eventuated out of that and everything happens for a reason.”

Karl Amon celebrates a Power goal with Orazio Fantasia (left).

At aged five Amon was diagnosed with Perthes disease, a childhood hip disorder initiated by a disruption of blood flow to the head of the femur, which had him in a wheelchair for a year followed by a year on crutches.

So it perhaps shouldn’t be any surprise that Amon was able to bounce back from a tough start to his Port Adelaide career.

Jared Polec’s departure to North Melbourne gave Amon his chance in the Power’s side and he grabbed it with both hands playing 17 and 19 games in 2019 and 2020, becoming an “elite” wingman according to Champion Data.

And even when St Kilda and Melbourne tried to bring him back to Victoria at the end of the 2019 season, he stayed at Port Adelaide.

Hinkley said Amon’s determination had to be lauded.

“As a footballer you have one opportunity to drive and create your own career and if you aren’t pushing it yourself you are going to miss out on the opportunities,” he said.

“Karl squeezes every inch out himself but he has great role models, he has people like (Travis) Boak and (Tom) Jonas around him who showed him how to get the most out of his career.”

Originally published as Port Adelaide news 2021: ‘Squad mentality’ can take them all the way, says captain Tom Jonas