Port Adelaide coach misses his last training session
Steve Larkin |
An ill Ken Hinkley has missed his last training session as Port Adelaide coach.
Hinkley will coach the Power for the final time on Friday night when hosting Gold Coast in a pivotal fixture for the Suns’ finals chances.
But the 13-year Port coach was absent, due to illness, from Port’s Alberton Oval headquarters on Thursday for a match-eve training session.
Power officials say Hinkley is in no danger of missing his farewell game at Adelaide Oval, which is also the last match of retiring great Travis Boak.
Assistant coach Chad Cornes will also farewell the Power on Friday night after being told he won’t be required under Josh Carr, who will take over from Hinkley as head coach.
“Josh told me probably seven weeks ago,” Cornes told reporters on Thursday.
“That wasn’t a great moment. But I think deep down … I felt that coming throughout most of the year.
“So it was disappointing then, but right now I feel really good about it.
“Obviously not my call, but I feel it’s the right call for both parties … I leave on great terms.”
The 13th-placed Power were out of finals reckoning weeks ago.
But the clash is vital for the Suns, coached by Cornes’s 2004 premiership teammate at Port, Damien Hardwick.
Gold Coast, eyeing a maiden finals appearance, are in ninth spot with 56 premiership points – the same as the eighth-placed Western Bulldogs, who meet Fremantle on Sunday.
But crucially for their ambitions, the Suns have a game in hand on the rest of their fellow finals aspirants.
Hardwick’s charges will meet Essendon on Wednesday night in the last home-and-away match before the finals – the fixture was postponed from the opening round due to a cyclone in Queensland.
The Suns coach has urged his players to embrace the emotion of Port’s farewells at Adelaide Oval, a venue where the Queensland club has never won in 12 attempts.
“It’s going to be a high-octane game I would think,” Hardwick said on Wednesday.
“One thing I do know about Ken and his sides, they like to play a Showtime type of game and I’m pretty sure they’re going to be at their best against us on Friday night.
“What we do realise is with emotion comes a start that is very important, especially at an away venue where you’ve got to start well, there’s no doubt about that.”
AAP
