AFL Round 12 Port Adelaide defeated Hawthorn: Will Lachie Jones keeping Tom Jonas in the SANFL?
Port Adelaide captain Tom Jonas played in the SANFL on Sunday for the first time since 2015 – and he could be there for a while after what a Power young gun did against Hawthorn.
Scott Lycett is now one of the most important players to Port Adelaide’s 2023 fortunes.
It would have been hard to argue that he was a few weeks ago.
The veteran ruckman languished in the SANFL for three matches, having struggled for form in his return from missing the bulk of last season with shoulder injuries.
Lycett was substituted early in the third quarter of the Power’s round 5 home win over the Western Bulldogs with just two disposals to his name, as Tim English dominated in heavy rain, and Port did not recall him until five weeks later.
Against Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval on Saturday, the Power took Lycett off at a similar stage – this time to look after him while it was cruising to a 15-goal lead.
Port will have had three consecutive six-day breaks by the time it faces the Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night then hosts Geelong the following Friday.
The club would also be mindful of its ruck stocks being hit by Brynn Teakle, who replaced Lycett earlier this season, suffering a foot injury and pinch-hitter Charlie Dixon being sidelined for a fourth week in a row with a quad issue.
“We’ve got three six-day breaks in a row and we just think it’s really important to manage Scott,” Power coach Ken Hinkley said on Saturday.
“As you’ve seen today, he’s really important to that group around the ball and he’s added something big to our group in the last three weeks.”
Fatigue, the Power’s drop in defensive pressure and Hawthorn’s fight were significant factors behind the game-high 96-point lead eroding, but it was no coincidence the Hawks’ comeback started when Lycett went off.
At halftime, Port led clearances 23-16 and inside 50s 42-20.
Lycett was the 10th-highest possession winner on the ground at the long break with 11 and also had three clearances, as well as two inside-50s.
He had two more touches and another clearance before he was subbed off.
The Hawks got on top in the middle after Lycett headed to the bench, as Jeremy Finlayson and six-game forward Ollie Lord were left to ruck.
“When Scooter went off we probably lost a bit of momentum, but we haven’t had him for a large part of the year, so it’s no excuse,” Power star Connor Rozee told The Advertiser.
Lycett was impressive in his return match against Melbourne, performing admirably against All-Australian duo Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy to help the Power to a four-point victory.
The Port big man was influential in last week’s 10-point triumph over Richmond at the MCG, recording the equal second-most clearances (six) on the ground.
Post-game, Lycett told CODE Sports the spell in the SANFL helped him build his form, as well as belief in his body.
The West Coast premiership player was always confident he would come back into the Power line-up.
Hinkley said the 30-year-old had looked fresher these past three games.
“That’s why we made the decision we did today,” he said.
“He’s highly valuable still to us, as long as we can keep him a bit fresh.
“We’ve been talking about managing Scooter for a good part of this season already.
“We know how important he is because he gives a pretty dynamic group at ground level a decent look, and that’s all they need.”
Hinkley was optimistic Dixon would return to face the Bulldogs, though said he had been that way for a few weeks now.
The match provides Lycett with a chance to redeem himself against All-Australian contender English.
For Port, it is chasing a 10th straight victory.
Rozee said the task was tough to keep that streak going but top sides embraced those tests.
“We’ve been playing consistent footy for a couple of months now,” Rozee said.
“The challenge is to keep that going, and the boys are buying into that mindset.
“It doesn’t matter who we’ve got out there – we’ve had a few changes the last few weeks – we’ve just got to keep bringing that pressure football.”
Lachie Jones made it more difficult for Power captain Tom Jonas to immediately return to the Power line-up.
A week after impressing against Richmond, including beating Tigers champion Dustin Martin in a few one-on-ones, Jones was one of the highlights for Hinkley against the Hawks.
The 21-year-old was playing his fifth match this season on Saturday and 25th of his career.
Jonas was available after serving a one-game suspension but was overlooked.
Hinkley said giving Jones consistency in his position, playing him at half-back for the past six weeks, had helped him.
“We’ve always thought he’s a potential third or second tall down back when he’s going,” he said.
“I think he’s cleaning up his game really well and is such a young player.
“As you’ve seen today, he’s got great power and we’re really comfortable with his growth.”
Jonas pressed his case in the SANFL – his first state-league game since 2015 – on Sunday.
Koch: I’ll take 20 more years of that
– Jason Phelan
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley was thrilled with the brutal nature of his side’s stunning first-half blitz against Hawthorn, and conceded it would have been greedy of him to demand his players continue the onslaught after halftime.
On a day when Power chairman David Koch expressed his hope that Hinkley would be a 20-year coach at the club, Hinkley’s men made it a record nine wins in a row with a 55-point victory at Adelaide Oval after kicking the highest first-half total in the club’s history to lead by 82 points at the main break.
Port was looking at a huge percentage boost when it led by as much as 96 points, before the Hawks regrouped to kick eight of the last 10 goals of the match.
“I thought we played all parts of the game in an incredibly brutal way,” Hinkley said of the breathtaking first-half display.
“It’s definitely as good a half as I’ve seen us play for a long, long time.
“To expect that to continue was probably me being a bit greedy in some ways … I just couldn’t expect that from the boys.
“I don’t worry about percentage, we’re not worried about percentage when the game is going on, we’re just thinking about winning and I was really pleased that we had the game put away at halftime.
“We just spent all our petrol in the first half when we were just so ferocious and to expect that to continue … it probably wasn’t going to happen.
“You win, you take it, and move on.”
The last time Port won eight games or more under Hinkley was in 2014 when the club lost a tight preliminary final against Hawthorn by three points.
But Hinkley dismissed comparisons between the two campaigns.
“It’s great, it’s a pleasing achievement, but I’m not going to sit here and say that it’s a massive thing,” he said of the record winning streak.
“It’s part of our build this season … all we’re worried about is trying to win as many games as we can and if that happens to be nine in a row then we’ll take it.
“It doesn’t mean we’re not going to try to get 10 next week, 11 the week after, or whatever the number ends up being.
“The number doesn’t matter to us … it’s the way that we play and ideally we can keep winning.”
The barnstorming run can only help Hinkley’s case for a new contract, but he laughed off questions about his future after Koch told 3AW that he hopes “Ken is a 20-year coach for Port Adelaide”.
“I’ll be really old, won’t I?” the 56-year-old said.
“Look, I’m not going to get drawn into questions around what will or won’t happen.
“We’ve been really strong on that … we’re not talking about anything other than next week and trying to win another game of footy.
“Whatever happens, happens.”
Port has the opportunity to make it 10 wins in a row against the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on Friday night, with Hinkley unsure if key duo Travis Boak and Charlie Dixon will return from injury.
“Every week I say ‘Yes’ and then it tends to be ‘No’, so maybe,” he said.
“We’re optimistic, but we were last week.
“Charlie was really, really close this week but let’s see what happens … I don’t absolutely know that they’re going to play or not.”
Hinkley, Port make breathtaking statement
Ken Hinkley’s barnstorming Port Adelaide side rumbled to a record nine wins in a row on Saturday, with Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Jeremy Finlayson starring as the Power cruised to a 55-point win over Hawthorn.
In a stunning first-half display that was simply breathtaking at times, Port booted the highest first-half score in the club’s history, and the highest of any AFL side since 2012, to set up the 23.13 (151) to 14.12 (96) win at Adelaide Oval.
The Power booted nine goals in the first quarter to lead by 42 points at the first break, with that lead 82 points at halftime after the home side eclipsed its previous record first-half tally of 15.5 (95) with a whopping 16.9 (105) from two quarters of awe-inspiring footy.
Port led by as much as 96 points in the third quarter, but with a 100-point demolition in the offing, the brave Hawks did well to regroup and fight the game out with eight of the last 10 goals.
Rozee and Butters provided their customary midfield drive for Port, who had 11 goalkickers, with Finlayson (five goals), Todd Marshall (five) and Junior Rioli (four) all equalling personal bests.
James Worpel, with a game-high 35 possessions, and Luke Breust, with five goals that took him past the 500-goal mark, were pivotal in Hawthorn’s second-half revival.
The result means Port has won nine games in a row in the AFL for the first time.
Hinkley’s men have a chance to extend their winning run into double figures against the Western Bulldogs, who the Power beat by 14 points in Round 5, when the sides face off at Marvel Stadium on Friday night.
After a shaky 1-2 start to the season, Port’s stirring run of victories has improved its record to 10-2 that strengthened its grip on a top-two spot.
Shock start
Without star skipper James Sicily, who was serving a one-match suspension, the shell-shocked Hawks had no answers to the switched-on Power’s intensity, pressure and superior work rate in a blistering opening term.
Butters provided the spark in the middle with nine first-quarter possessions and Finlayson was unstoppable in attack with four goals as Port recorded its highest-scoring quarter for the season.
Finlayson got the ball rolling with the first two goals of the match and when he sent his fourth soaring over the Moreton Bay fig trees at the northern end of the ground inside the last minute, the home side enjoyed a whopping 42-point advantage.
The rout continued into the second quarter, Marshall joining the party with two goals and Finlayson equalling his career-best mark with his fifth as Port rattled through nine unanswered majors.
Fine 500
Stand-in skipper Breust entered the game on 499 career goals, but spurned two golden opportunities to reach his milestone, hitting the right goalpost then the left with successive set shots in the first quarter.
But when the 32-year-old fed Tyler Brockman and received a handball back late in the first quarter, he stroked home his 500th goal running inside 50 and was mobbed by every teammate on the ground.
Breust kicked his side’s only goal of the second quarter to take his tally to 501, making him the 63rd player to pass 500 goals, with John Longmire at No. 62 with 511 goals in his sights.
He made it 502 with the last goal of the third quarter, with Sam Mitchell’s men stemming the bleeding to square the term with five goals apiece.
The fight back continued in the last with Breust’s 503rd major the fourth of his side’s sixth in a row.
Scoreboard
POWER 9.3 16.9 21.12 23.13 (151)
HAWKS 2.3 3.5 8.8 14.12 (96)
PHELAN’S BEST
POWER: Rozee, Butters, Finlayson, Wines, Rioli, Marshall, Horne-Francis, Houston. HAWKS: Worpel, Breust, Impey, Amon, Moore, Hardwick, Lewis.
GOALS
POWER: Finlayson 5, Marshall 5, Rioli 4, Houston 2, Wines, Rozee, McEntee, Horne-Francis, Byrne-Jones, Butters, Burton.
HAWKS: Breust 5, Lewis 3, Newcombe, Macdonald, Impey, Butler, Brockman, Amon.
INJURIES
POWER: Nil. HAWKS: Mitchell (illness – late withdrawal).
UMPIRES Haussen, Deboy, Heffernan, Tee.
34,234 at ADELAIDE OVAL
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
JASON PHELAN’S VOTES
3 Rozee (PA)
2 Butters (PA)
1 Worpel (Haw)
Port Adelaide:
— Matt Turner (@mattturner1986) June 3, 2023
* Booted its highest ever first-half score
* AFL's highest 1st-half score since St Kilda in 2012 (17.6)
* Leads inside 50s 42-20
* Leads tackles inside 50 14-1
* Threatening to kick its top score (188 v Hawks, 2005) #AFLPowerHawks
Kochie flags another decade in charge for Ken
– Glenn McFarlane
Port Adelaide chairman David Koch hopes Ken Hinkley ends up being “a 20-year coach” with the club, but remains steadfast that talks with the out of contract coach won’t be fast-tracked from its August deadline.
While the Power has turned around its season since back to back losses in rounds 2 and 3, Koch told 3AW the pre-season plan to defer the decision until a more complete picture was available was the right move.
He also reiterated his desire to stay on as chairman of the Power, despite stepping away from his role as co-host of Channel 7’s Sunrise.
“The great (clubs) always have stability, they have stability in executives and board and coaching (panels),” Koch said ahead of the Power-Hawks clash.
“I hope Ken is a 20-year coach for Port Adelaide, but we are in a performance situation, and (any decision) depends on Ken as well.
“There is a time, just like I decided to step away, like Damien Hardwick decided to step away (from Richmond) … it is not just me making the decision. It is Ken as well.
“That’s why we decided to keep any decision until later in the year where we are in a clear head space and the football department is given clear air to focus on success and what they are doing.
“After round 3 a lot of people criticised us for that. (But) we stuck to the plan, and at this stage, I am pretty happy with the way it has turned out.”
He said he had never wavered in his faith of Hinkley’s coaching credentials or his connection with the playing group.
Koch said the Power aimed to win the premiership every year, saying: “The word rebuild is banned at our place because rebuild is an excuse for failure. We constantly want to win the flag.”
“I am desperate for Kenny to win one because he deserves one.”
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