Port Adelaide taking on a new profile as coach Ken Hinkley looks to a new generation
PORT Adelaide is taking on a new look - investing more and more time and hope on youth as it power’s towards a September push.
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PORT Adelaide is changing - turning younger and to less experience, even on the eve of the Power’s first AFL finals campaign since 2014.
And this seems quite a contradiction considering the well-worn theme for teams entering the September top-eight series is typically to back experience and to settle the line-up.
By stark contrast to this long-fashioned concept on the eve of finals, Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has invested more and more in youth. He is assured of coaching the Power next season. Hinkley is highly likely to get a contract extension during the summer, keeping him at Alberton until at least 2020 - the club’s 150th anniversary season.
And by then Hinkley should have the team of his making rather than the one he inherited at Alberton at the end of the 2012 season.
Since the Showdown drubbing - the record 84-point loss to Adelaide, the AFL’s prime marker - Hinkley has reaffirmed his reputation for backing youth.
Dougal Howard as a defender rather than a ruckman-forward ahead of the more-experienced Jack Hombsch. Untried key forward Todd Marshall rather than free agent Jackson Trengove. Dan Houston, Aidyn Johnson, Riley Bonner, Brendon AhChee and Karl Amon ahead of Matt White, Angus Monfries and Aaron Young.
And recently re-signed ruckman Billy Frampton would have been on this list last week had the untried West Australian not required corrective shoulder surgery to ensure he is ready to contend for AFL selection next season.
Port Adelaide clearly intends to avoid the trap that had North Melbourne push and push an ageing list until at the end of last season. Then, perhaps too late, the Kangaroos list-management team realised it had for three years stockpiled almost a dozen players who had not been tested in AFL company.
Hinkley will finish the season having seen in AFL ranks every player on the Power’s senior list except the injured Frampton and last year’s second-round draftee Willem Drew. He also has upgraded from the Power’s rookie list - Houston, Brett Eddy and, this week, Jarrod Lienert.
“We’ve got an understanding of them all - no doubt,” Hinkley said on Friday/yesterday. “And so we should when we have had them for a whole year - and we know what they can possibly do for us.”
As Kevin Sheedy proved with his “Baby Bombers” in winning the 1993 AFL flag - and Michael Malthouse at Collingwood in 2010 with the youngest VFL-AFL premiership team since 1978 - there is imposing power in a young group of footballers filled with ambition and not jaded by previous campaigns or scars.
Hinkley says he picking his sides “on performance”.
“I don’t buy into age, games played ... it is about performance,” said Hinkley.
With no hierarchical theme at Alberton, youth has no barrier to progress.
“In my time, we’ve always been happy to give younger blokes an opportunity,” Hinkley said. “And if they play well enough - like Sam Powell-Pepper this year and Ollie Wines in my first year - you don’t put them out because they are young. Pick them on form.
“Take Dan Houston. He has had a fantastic season.
“Footy has a habit of surprising you. Am I surprised (the young guns) have progressed as quickly as they have? Yes, I am.”
There is clearly a changing of the team profile at Alberton. More youth. More new promise. More commitment to finding answers from within after trading for pressing needs with key forward Charlie Dixon, ruckman Patrick Ryder and midfielder Jared Polec.
September will mark Port Adelaide’s fourth AFL final series in the past decade (2007, 2013, 2014 and this season). This is short of traditional expectations at Alberton, but reflective of how more demanding and testing the 18-team national competition is to Port Adelaide’s original playground in the State league SANFL.
Next month’s AFL final series also will emphasise - particularly to captain Travis Boak and veteran utility Justin Westhoff - how eras are rushed in the AFL.
Boak was 19 and Westhoff days from celebrating his 21st birthday when they lined up as Port Adelaide’s least-experienced players (14 and 16 AFL games respectively) in the 2007 grand final. They will be the most-experienced (220 and 225 games) in the Power’s first final next month.
CHANGING PROFILE
HOW Port Adelaide is turning back the clock on its team profile
2007 GRAND FINAL
v Geelong (MCG)
Age: 24 years, 359 days
Total games: 2192
Breakdown
0-50: 7
51-100: 6
101-200: 6
200+: 3
Least experienced - Travis Boak (14 games), Justin Westhoff (16)
2013 ELIMINATION FINAL
v Collingwood (MCG)
Age: 24 years, 84 days
Total games: 2015
Breakdown
0-50: 9
51-100: 4
101-200: 7
200+: 2
2017 ROUND 22
v W Bulldogs (Ballarat)
Age: 24 years, 115 days
Total games: 1977
Breakdown
0-50: 9
51-100: 5
101-200: 4
200+: 4
Most experienced - Westhoff (224), Boak (219)
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au
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