Ken Hinkley has openly admitted his Port Adelaide side “needed” their Gather Round win over Hawthorn on Sunday night, in a victory that could re-ignite their push to once again play finals football.
A 12-goal first half blitz from the Power just about put the Gather Round season finale on ice for good at the Adelaide Oval, with the home side at one point holding a 71-point lead before the main break.
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The opposing Hawks made a late, late charge to try and pull off the greatest come-from-behind win in V/AFL history, but Port held their nerve to put themselves back up in the winners column.
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“We needed to win Round 5, Gather Round at home. Hawthorn were the opponents (and) they’ve been the best team in the comp for the last 12 months. It was a big ask, but we found a way,” Hinkley told journalists post-game.
“Actions speak louder than any words you can talk … we were up for the challenge of Hawthorn, which was good.”
“At 1-3, they (the players) knew we were getting into some challenging positions. We were always pretty confident in that if we play the right way, we can win lots of games of footy still. You can’t underestimate how much we took from last week’s game and in the improvements that we needed.”
The Alberton-based club’s hot start was well-inspired by captain Connor Rozee, who has been thrown under the microscope in recent weeks for both his individual performance and team’s as a whole.
The 25-year-old’s surprise move to half-back generated some much-needed run off out of Port’s defensive half, with his opening two quarters generating 16 disposals, 551 metres gained, three inside 50s and two goals to throw Hawthorn’s hopes of a victory on life support.
“We’re there to support our captain, he’s been a fantastic young captain for us. We just felt like there was an opportunity to support him a little bit differently this week,” Hinkley continued.
“He’ll be a real challenge for most teams in that (half-back) spot, but ultimately we’ll use our players week-to-week in the positions that we need to challenge the opposition.
“We’re capable of that type of powerful performance, and it takes a lot of things to for right, and it takes 23 people to buy in … we didn’t have a passenger in the first half.
“You get written off really quickly in the competition, don’t we? It’s really quite a ferocious competition when you have a couple below-par performances. We’ve always maintained belief internally that we can play against the best teams in the competition, and we’re going to have to — we have Sydney next week.”
Usual suspects in Zak Butters and Jason Horne-Francis also took the bull by the horns when the game was on the line early, while the likes of Jackson Mead and Willem Drew were strong around the footy all night.
Port Adelaide’s longest-serving coach was also quizzed on his capacity to rev his side up, amid his final year as club coach before handing the head coach reigns to current assistant Josh Carr.
“As I’ve said all the time, the energy to help, support and be apart of the team, support the players and the rest of the coaching group is not in question. And I wish people would stop asking that question, regardless of what happens,” Hinkley emphasised.
“I reckon it’s a really unfair question to continually ask someone who’s been around the game for as long as I have.”
After maintaining their perfect record in Gather Rounds, Port Adelaide will have a seven-day break before trekking to the SCG for a preliminary final re-match against Sydney.
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