Port coach Ken Hinkley takes Zen approach

Steve Larkin | March 16, 2022

Ken has gone Zen.

Port Adelaide’s coach Ken Hinkley is adopting a Zen-like mantra to rebound his AFL club from consecutive home preliminary final losses.

“It’s time for us to stay focused on now,” Hinkley told AAP.

The past is “gone”, he said. Particularly last season’s horror 71-point preliminary final capitulation to the Western Bulldogs.

“It’s done,” he said.

“We learnt from it. We reviewed it strongly … if we have to keep going back six months we will miss our next opportunity and we are not going to do that.”

Hinkley’s mantra is akin to Buddha’s oft-quoted saying: ‘Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.’

Hinkley also believes well-worn footy sayings, such as one game at a time.

“Football cliches are real,” Hinkley said.

“We have to stay focused on the next game or the next moment.

“My responsibility and the club’s responsibility is to stay focused on now.”.

Port and Hinkley were savaged by fans and foes alike for their preliminary final failure.

But three of last season’s top four all copped beatings of more than 71 points in their last games.

The Bulldogs were pounded by 74 points in the grand final and Geelong were thrashed by 83 in their preliminary final – both losses to premiers Melbourne.

And Brisbane, a top-four club at the end of the home-and-away season in the past three years, has a finals record of one win, five losses in that span.

Yet the spotlight seemingly has turned into a blowtorch at Port Adelaide, who also lost a 2020 home preliminary final by six points to that year’s premiers, Richmond.

“The information we have got over the last two or three years is pretty consistent,” Hinkley said.

“We know exactly what we are working on and what we are working towards.

“We have made two prelim finals but haven’t made the ultimate.

“And we don’t hide from the expectation that we want to win the premiership.

“But we start ’22 knowing that if we don’t improve significantly in all phases of the game, we will get passed.”

To prevent that, Hinkley is going deeper with his midfield.

Feted third-year players Zak Butters, Connor Rozee and Xavier Duursma will increasingly play on-ball to support established stars such as Brownlow medallist Ollie Wines, Travis Boak, triple club champion Robbie Gray and ruckman Scott Lycett.

“We know it’s a three phase game – it’s contest, defence and offence,” Hinkley said.

“We have been really solid for a long period of time but our key areas that we have looked to try and improve is our ability around the ball … (and) our conversion.

“We hope we given enough time to those critical components of our game style that we can see continuous improvement, but that also comes with the development of the personnel.

“And we’re optimistic around the youth of our side, the development of the emerging young leaders.”

Hinkley cites not just Butters, Rozee and Duursma but the likes of Ryan Burton, Riley Bonner, Dan Houston and Sam Powell-Pepper – a quartet aged 24 or 25.

Add to the mix forwards such as Mitch Georgiades, 20, Todd Marshall, 23, and 26-year-old Orazio Fantasia in support of spearhead Charlie Dixon, 31.

There’s also a crop of young backmen to help renowned defenders like captain Tom Jonas and All Australian recruit Aliir Aliir, which leaves Hinkley with, as he put it, “a well-balanced list” designed for sustained contention.

“It’s a really healthy, developing young list that has got plenty of upside,” Hinkley said.

“We’re not going to lose too many players at the one time, we’re not trying to bring too many young players in at the one time.

“We have got some good experience into people who have played a lot of games of football at a youngish age – that puts us in a healthy position.”