Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley adamant succession plan is the right thing despite embarrassing loss

The loss to Collingwood raised more questions about Port Adelaide’s coaching succession plan – but Ken Hinkley wasn’t having any of it on Tuesday.

Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley has fired back at critics of the club’s succession plan, saying they are just “some opinions based off one loss”.

In the wake of the heaviest loss of his career, Hinkley also rejected claims that he would not be as motivated or as excited to coach the Power in 2025 knowing that his end date at Alberton is in sight.

The Power were humiliated by Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday night, with the 91-point margin the heaviest loss of Hinkley’s tenure at Alberton.

Ken Hinkley facing the media on Tuesday. Picture: RoyVPhotography

On Tuesday at Alberton, Hinkley said there was no confusion at all among either players or coaches at Alberton.

“I think we have been really clear on that, there is absolutely no confusion,” he said.

“I said right from the start I have plenty of energy for the job, Josh and I know exactly what is going on, the whole football club knows what is going on.

“People have some opinions based off one loss.

“Not one bit (he doesn’t waiver), no I don’t enjoy big losses regardless of it was 91 (points) and the next biggest was 86 or something like that, five points, it is a bad loss.

“Yes it hits the top of the benchmark for my career, but when you are losing by 90 points or 86 points it is bad.”

Taking place in the first home and away game after the Power announced that assistant Josh Carr would succeed Hinkley at the end of the year, much of the fallout from the loss has centred around if the plan is the right one and if it was also the right decision to have Hinkley coach out the final year of his contract.

On Monday night Hinkley’s former player Kane Cornes said he felt his former coach “has just had enough”, while ex-St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt said it was “human nature” for the Power senior coach to lose motivation or excitement.

When asked about those comments, Hinkley fired back.

“The two people you are talking about they aren’t asking me that question, if they want to I am really happy for them to ask me that question,” he said.

“I think you know what the answer is, of course it is I am as excited as I have been all year.

“I said that all the way through, I am disappointed in a really bad loss but I am not going to waiver or jump to a position that I wasn’t in last Thursday.

“I am excited about what this team can do, I am excited about the growth of this team and I am excited about the direction of this footy club.

“Saturday night makes it hard for everyone to accept that it was the right direction right now but before that it was pretty good.”

The effort and intensity shown by the Power against the Magpies was slammed by many in the aftermath of the heavy loss.

Hinkley said while it was a “really bad game of football” he would still “trust the boys a fair bit”.

“For us that performance was well below par but the thing I have to consider is the players’ consistency over a long period of time has been pretty good and I am not going to throw them all the way and say it is all your fault,” he said.

“We didn’t play well, we let ourselves down and we let everyone associated with Port Adelaide down but the reality is it is Round 1 so I am going to trust the boys a fair bit,” he said.

“You normally go clutching for everything but it is just an unusual performance by a team that has been pretty consistent, that is what I would say.

“Still optimistic about what this team can achieve.

“We all have to live with that bad performance, we are not going to sit here and pretend to put anything that is not real on the table.

“We won’t panic, that is key. There were other sides that did not have the performance they wanted over the first round and we were one of them so we have to stick to the course that we are on and we know what that course usually delivers for us.”

Hinkley’s side were also labelled as being “too nice” to former Power star Dan Houston, who got nine coaches votes on debut for the Pies, with players waiting on ground for him to finish a post-game interview.

“We weren’t too nice to anything to do with Collingwood,” Hinkley said.

“We went there to compete against Collingwood Football Club, of which Dan was part of, and we certainly weren’t too nice but he played well.”

Originally published as Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley adamant succession plan is the right thing despite embarrassing loss