Prediction Sell me on Port Adelaide 2023

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Literally no reason they can’t win the flag. Richmond turned it around in 2017. Do not see how Port couldn’t. Certain things you look for;

Coach who is embattled but club sticks by him

List that has had finals experience

List that has star power

List that makes tweaks and changes to iron out deficiencies

Port has recruited well and ticks those boxes above. I am tipping them right now for the flag.
Interesting points.
 
So many examples meet that criteria.

Brisbane - 01
Geelong - 07
Hawks - 13
Richmond - 17
Eagles - 18
Melbourne - 21
You could add crows in 1997-8 too.

But the crows were not embattled, they needed a new coach though. Crazy to think crows won 2 flags with 13 wins and 9 losses in 22 regular season games.

Collingwood in 2002-3 could of been on that list and so could saints in 2009-10
 
The posts calling out the bottom 4 post 1 game into the season are inviting the karma bus a little too much for my liking, but if the midfield clicks like it did today we could do pretty well this year. It's immediately clear that Horne Francis will be a hell of a player though

It was a bullshit call then and it will be bullshit 12 weeks from now. There's too much top end talent to finish that low. We might have finished 11th last year but we beat one of the bottom 4 by 90 points and 14th by 60 in the final 2 weeks of the year. Had as bad a season as you possibly could have done. Tons of injuries and players playing cooked, close losses galore. 6-12 was always the likely range. If some unexpected things happen like JHF coming on quicker than expected, Rioli/Fanta/Dixon staying fit, then who knows.
 

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Spoon obviously not going to happen, but I think some of my pre season reservations about Port Adelaide are coming home to roost.

I honestly think other clubs around their range have improved their list and game plan significantly, and Hinkley is stuck there like a bad smell and the likes of Butters and Duursma haven't had great starts to the season

I think Ken will be sacked/gone by the bye, but is that enough to salvage their season/fix most of their current problems

Draw doesn't get any easier with the Swans at the SCG next week.

Not prepared at all to say that their noisy neighbours (Crows) have gone past them, but their players, esp kids seem to be enjoying their footy a lot more and playing with more confidence, which does reflect on the coaching.

Their first round win against Brisbane may look like Fool's gold now given The Lions are not going that flash either.

I just don't see a list capable of challenging for the flag in its current construction (Hinkley's poor coaching and player development aside)
 
I will still stick to my early season port Adelaide predictions despite Port having a 1 win and 2 loss record from 3 games.

I said they will make finals with a 14 win and 9 loss record. I will still stand by this.
 
They are totally cooked as a club

Lycett is done, Fantasia doesn’t seem to have to earn his spot in the team, Jonas is the worst Captain in the AFL, Boral is slowing down and Dixon and McKenzie are also over 31

Butters has struggled to regain his mojo since his injury, and JHF is not midfield fit

There list has been significantly over-rated, their list lacks depth and quality young players pushing up for selection and this is reflected in their sanfl performance

Most of all their coach is a total salesman, he sells hope where there is FA hope, and he has failed to address their kicking and contested ball flaws

They are gone


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They are totally cooked as a club

Lycett is done, Fantasia doesn’t seem to have to earn his spot in the team, Jonas is the worst Captain in the AFL, Boral is slowing down and Dixon and McKenzie are also over 31

Butters has struggled to regain his mojo since his injury, and JHF is not midfield fit

There list has been significantly over-rated, their list lacks depth and quality young players pushing up for selection and this is reflected in their sanfl performance

Most of all their coach is a total salesman, he sells hope where there is FA hope, and he has failed to address their kicking and contested ball flaws

They are gone


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I agree, Boral is cooked.


But seriously, lycett is absolute rubbish. We may have had an AFL standard ruckman by now if we'd given Hayes a decent run instead of aborting his career for some rando they picked out of the wafl, who played 5 good minutes before getting injured.

Jonas is indeed the worst captain in the AFL and its baffling he wasn't given the arse in the off season. Too short for talls, too slow for smalls.

Most of all, ken Hinkley is a colossal failure, con artist and grub, you get in the boys club by being involved with a horrific dog racing industry involving animal cruelty, organised crime and gambling. Good bloke my arse.
 
This comment did not age well.

Yeah

I wasn’t wrong tho, the reason the crows beating us is such a big issue is because we should have mopped the floor with them with our list.

I underestimated just much our coach has finally lost the players.



Oh well, we’ve just accelerated his departure


He’s a dead man walking, and it’s a matter of when now not if.

We’ve got a good list with a few problematic issues, and half of them get sorted when a new coach sweeps out the old deadwood.
 
They are totally cooked as a club

Lycett is done, Fantasia doesn’t seem to have to earn his spot in the team, Jonas is the worst Captain in the AFL, Boral is slowing down and Dixon and McKenzie are also over 31

Butters has struggled to regain his mojo since his injury, and JHF is not midfield fit

There list has been significantly over-rated, their list lacks depth and quality young players pushing up for selection and this is reflected in their sanfl performance

Most of all their coach is a total salesman, he sells hope where there is FA hope, and he has failed to address their kicking and contested ball flaws

They are gone


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

Cooked as a club? The cooked thing is the afl not letting us have control of our club.

Port has member control, like all the vic clubs do, and Hinkley would have been gone ages ago. But the afl assigned board doesn’t align their goals with the fans, they serve the afl, who doesn’t care if we’re good, only need us to be viable.

As soon as the coach goes , we’re in a totally different position. All the underachievers who have had a golden ticket under Hinkley and are a massive reason why we’re struggling right now will be gone or non-issues.

The outdated and useless from the start gameplan that hamstrings us will be gone.

Does this mean we’re instant flag contenders? No. But we can say goodbye to the absolute worst of what we’ve seen from port in the last 11 years.
 
How do blokes like Ken Hinkley stay around for ever when Brett Ratten gets the arse as soon as a bigger name is available?
 
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How do blokes like Ken Hinkley stay around for every when Brett Ratten gets the arse as soon as a bigger name is available?
Honestly I think it’s because the players genuinely love him. He’s obviously very good at maintaining his relationships with everyone on the list which holds him in good stead.
 
I tend to think we have a pretty solid young list. We have a few exceptionally talented players, the issue is they all seem to be midfielders. Forward line is pretty solid with Marshall and Georgiades as focal points. Our backline is a massive weak point, particularly KPDs, and we haven’t had a good ruck since Paddy Ryder got the boot. We’re not rebuilding like say Hawthorn or Adelaide but I think we are regenerating our list a bit. We’re far from the worst list in the league but I think we also need to nail a few draft picks in coming years or we’ll keep being a run of the mill mid table team

All of this is irrelevant though til we flick our waste of space and time coach.
 
Honestly I think it’s because the players genuinely love him. He’s obviously very good at maintaining his relationships with everyone on the list which holds him in good stead.
Then why aren't they playing to win for him? Because they don't have the ability to do so? Not being coached in the right way?
 
The Hinkley excuse has been insanely overdone by Port fans on here. Fair enough that he's a woeful coach, but the list is mediocre at best and blaming Hinkley is papering over massive cracks.

Rozee, Butters and JHF have the potential or have shown to be top level players, but the rest of the squad is lacking in quality. Wines, Boak and Jonas look cooked and don't seem to have any replacements lined up for them.

They've also completely butchered their drafting since 2018, apart from maybe Bergman and Georgiades. It's a fair indictment on list quality when you have no injury list and the reserves still get smashed by 10+ goals. No 1st rounder in the upcoming draft hurts as well.

Blaming Ken is a bit of a cop out tbh.
 
The Hinkley excuse has been insanely overdone by Port fans on here. Fair enough that he's a woeful coach, but the list is mediocre at best and blaming Hinkley is papering over massive cracks.

Rozee, Butters and JHF have the potential or have shown to be top level players, but the rest of the squad is lacking in quality. Wines, Boak and Jonas look cooked and don't seem to have any replacements lined up for them.

They've also completely butchered their drafting since 2018, apart from maybe Bergman and Georgiades. It's a fair indictment on list quality when you have no injury list and the reserves still get smashed by 10+ goals. No 1st rounder in the upcoming draft hurts as well.

Blaming Ken is a bit of a cop out tbh.

Yeah, the guy whose been head coach for 11 years, turned over the entire list, been through a slew of assistants (voss, Walsh, Richardson, Bassett, Nicks, Schofield, etc etc) has nothing to do with that.

It's literally everyone else's fault and never ken.

The club gave up on the sanfl as anything more than development and experimentation years ago. We've been garbage in there for ages. We didn't even bother employing a real coach.

The list is unbalanced because for years ken was allergic to anyone over 6 foot 2. They've since tried to overcompensate and now have too many young talls playing at once.

Let's review your "the list is s**t" nonsense, another common Hinkley myth. Ken's had :
  • a Brownlow medallist
  • AFL MVP and the clear best player in the comp in 2014
  • a captain who was a multiple all Australian
  • a guy who had 2x AAs before 21
  • rozee, butters, duursma, JHF
  • an AA CHF
  • an AA CHB

Look at Collingwood's list right now and tell me that's an amazing list. Look at Richmond's premiership sides.

Ken is garbage and we've been forced to put up with him more than a decade so piss off.
 
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Then why aren't they playing to win for him? Because they don't have the ability to do so? Not being coached in the right way?

Because our game plan has been "work hardery" for 8 years. Once the fitness advantage of Burgo in 2014 wore off daddy donuts has had nothing other than get it inside 50 more than the opposition and hope for the best.
 
The Hinkley excuse has been insanely overdone by Port fans on here. Fair enough that he's a woeful coach, but the list is mediocre at best and blaming Hinkley is papering over massive cracks.

Rozee, Butters and JHF have the potential or have shown to be top level players, but the rest of the squad is lacking in quality. Wines, Boak and Jonas look cooked and don't seem to have any replacements lined up for them.

They've also completely butchered their drafting since 2018, apart from maybe Bergman and Georgiades. It's a fair indictment on list quality when you have no injury list and the reserves still get smashed by 10+ goals. No 1st rounder in the upcoming draft hurts as well.

Blaming Ken is a bit of a cop out tbh.
The criticism this guy manages to escape is insane. It's always "it's not Ken your lost is just not that good". After 11 ******* years, it's his list. It's been his list through multiple rebuilds. If the list is not good enough it's on him.

Now I should say here is not only on him, though. We've got a President who once tried to criticise him and the players and the coaches cracked the sads and he filled like a house of cards. The same President has also given this shitty coach numerous unwarranted contact extensions.

We've got a board of AFL yes men and women whose KPIs are just making sure the team exists in some capacity so there's 2 teams in a state. We've gone from "We exist to win Premierships" to "We exist".

We have a general manager of football who is in a boys club with the coach and some of the players and plays favourites.

We have the worst coaching panel in the AFL headed up by the worst coach.

We have a leadership group that goes "Ah well footy ain't everything" - a view that surely comes from, or at least isn't challenged by the head coach.

There millions of problems. And once we remove Ken, who has bent this club over a barrel, we'll work on removing the rest. But Daddy Donuts goes first. Or Kochead. Either is fine.
 
How do blokes like Ken Hinkley stay around for ever when Brett Ratten gets the arse as soon as a bigger name is available?

I explained it..

Ratten coaches at Victorian sides that were member controlled and as such there was pressure on the club for the coach to either perform or get out.


Port is not member controlled, the afl appoints the majority of the board and gets to pick who members even vote on for the member positions

Therefore we don’t have the same pressures on a coach to perform to keep his job.

It’s just another reason why this league is a farce and a Mickey Mouse league.
 
The Hinkley excuse has been insanely overdone by Port fans on here. Fair enough that he's a woeful coach, but the list is mediocre at best and blaming Hinkley is papering over massive cracks.

Rozee, Butters and JHF have the potential or have shown to be top level players, but the rest of the squad is lacking in quality. Wines, Boak and Jonas look cooked and don't seem to have any replacements lined up for them.

They've also completely butchered their drafting since 2018, apart from maybe Bergman and Georgiades. It's a fair indictment on list quality when you have no injury list and the reserves still get smashed by 10+ goals. No 1st rounder in the upcoming draft hurts as well.

Blaming Ken is a bit of a cop out tbh.


Says after 11 years of nothing….
 
Yeah, the guy whose been head coach for 11 years, turned over the entire list, been through a slew of assistants (voss, Walsh, Richardson, Bassett, Nicks, Schofield, etc etc) has nothing to do with that.

It's literally everyone else's fault and never ken.

The club gave up on the sanfl as anything more than development and experimentation years ago. We've been garbage in there for ages. We didn't even bother employing a real coach.

The list is unbalanced because for years ken was allergic to anyone over 6 foot 2. They've since tried to overcompensate and now have too many young talls playing at once.

Let's review your "the list is s**t" nonsense, another common Hinkley myth. Ken's had :
  • a Brownlow medallist
  • AFL MVP and the clear best player in the comp in 2014
  • a captain who was a multiple all Australian
  • a guy who had 2x AAs before 21
  • rozee, butters, duursma, JHF
  • an AA CHF
  • an AA CHB

Look at Collingwood's list right now and tell me that's an amazing list. Look at Richmond's premiership sides.

Ken is garbage and we've been forced to put up with him more than a decade so piss off.
Port supporters have a delusional opinion of their list.

It’s fairly average.
 

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