Roast WHAT I WANT TO SEE FROM A WELL COACHED PORT SIDE THAT KEN HINKLEY HAS FAILED TO SHOW US

How will Janus twist this?


  • Total voters
    59
This post is limited to actual tactical s**t on field, and criticisms of our coaches pertaining to that. I haven’t forgotten the regular failures of our selection committee as another key part of our Hinkley-led coaching unit failing, but that’s not what this is about. I can do one of those if people want, but I’m nominating tribey for that, because his grudge holding is far more detailed and specific than mine.


Better Use Of Players Down The Length Of The Ground

At one point the Hinkley plan was to get the ball to half forward and force a stoppage, so our players could move up and take control of the front 3/4 of the field instead of the back 3/4. We’d then use forward pressure to try and keep the ball in the front part.

Heavily reliance on forward pressure works great against teams that rattle easily, but it wore our guys out when we did it every single game all game, and ultimately the composed teams would always cut through it when it mattered. When you are great at breaking down weak and rattleable teams, but struggle against well coached sides, your ceiling is definitively mid-table. You need something better.

Composed players would ignore the frantic approach of a Neade or similar, and continue what they were doing with little hindrance, because most of the pressure placed on them was mental but not actual. That’s great play (and coaching) by those opponents to draw the man and still get good disposal away, and we’ll get to that in the next section.

Since we recruited Charlie Dixon, our plan shifted a bit and then largely became about getting the ball past the halfway mark and hoofing it forward, out wide usually, maybe to Charlie or to Sam Gray or to space, and hope that that would give us time to move our whole team up to the front 3/4 instead of the back 3/4. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn’t. We didn’t really solve our problem with this change though, because our forwards were still being run ragged to do all the work.

Neither method has brought success, and the failures of the second method in particular were visible when Bassett was in charge of our defence and for some reason we allowed our defence the luxury of always having extra men back there, robbing us even more of structure and options down the field.

What we don’t do anywhere near often enough is demand that our defenders carry the ball forward UP TO THE POINT OF CONTEST, with the team moving ahead of them. Classic Port Adelaide teams of years past did this, you could watch them moving up the field in waves. Instead we get to a point, hoof and hope, often while the nearest opponent is a fair way away from the man carrying the ball. More on this failure of defenders later.

Another inefficient use of manpower, that precedes Hinkley and continues to this day, is when players take a mark, and handball backwards to a running player, who kicks from further behind than the man on the mark would’ve if he’d taken his time. What is the value of this. Handpassing to a running player should be reserved for when the running player is running past the mark and can exploit a zone collapse, not just because its easy.

And in this scenario, when the marking player has handballed off, they need to be looking at how they’ll next get involved in the play. Too often all they do is drop behind the play, instead of pushing/blocking forward to allow more space for the new ball carrier, or running forward to provide an option in case the new carrier runs into trouble. They just stop, and maybe go back to their direct opponent. I hate this so much.

Still happening under Hinkley. Saw Ryder do it just last week. Baffling.


Make The Opposition Work Harder Than You

Josh Carr was my favorite player for a lot of reasons, but one thing I enjoyed about him was when he had the ball in the defensive half (not after a mark, just holding it), and he’d Just. Stop. And wait until he could see he’d made an opponent run towards him to contest. Then because he had a cool head, he’d be disposing of the ball just before the opponent could tackle or smother, forcing them to waste their tank (and sometimes stretching the zone too)

Jarrad Schofield wasn’t always my favorite player, but I always enjoyed how reliable his baulking was, where he’d make a defender commit to stopping him, trick them into committing further to an action, and chance his own. Fans could see it coming, and maybe defenders could too, but they had to respect that Jarrad could go either way. They’d put in effort that Jarrad was ready for, and he’d usually coolly slot the ball to a leading forward or maybe jag a goal. Nice.

In both cases, they could do this because a) they had been coached to dispose just in time, and b) their teammates nearby presented options for them. Not just behind them or 30m sideways, but upfield.

This also ties into the previous point, of not being shitscared of the proximity of another player because you have something resembling composure. Making the opposition work harder than you requires bravery, confidence, and things that actual motivational coaches can instil into their players.

Guess Hinkley’s not a motivational coach, or ran out of motivation after 2014


Coordination downfield, only possible by having players consistently downfield to coordinate

Our forwards, few as they are allowed to be, don’t make coordinated leads to provide multiple options, because instead our coaches’ system largely has them responding to randomball delivery into the forward line, or running down to the wing to take marks because our inefficient and unambitious ball movement means there’s too many players left behind the play, and someone has to present.

When someone is running down the wing, a good team has a couple of options for the player with the ball to take. Ours is Charlie Dixon (now Frampton), or Bung It On The Boot, or both. We don’t have multiple options leading towards the ball (the easiest marks for any forward to take), because to do that you need to have more forwards further downfield than we usually position them.

Instead we see every game the ball kicked ahead of or on top of players running up from midfield. Great as a trick now and then, all teams do that sometimes, but too often its our only route to goal. Its why Sam Gray is in the side, he’s learned to roll with this shitty strategy. And its why he gets regularly shut down against good sides, because it’s a low percentage player, requiring high fitness, and excellent marking skill that usually requires working out the fall of the ball by looking over your shoulder. Park footballers dislike when they regularly have to do that, and AFL players would have similar concerns.

These are not easy marks. Its no wonder we can’t consistently take them, nor is it a surprise that a lot of the time the mistargeting of hoof and hope, & degree of difficulty in positioning to mark, require our players to chase an errant ball at ground level that overshot them - or to watch as the opponent’s loose man in defence effortlessly takes another intercept mark, as we’ve seen so so many times.

Having forwards allowed to watch midfield play develop and intelligently lead towards the ball (or at a useful contrary angle to the ball, if you have *gasp* more than one leading forward) isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. It conserves fitness and mental focus. The best teams in any year have forwards doing this, and they can do this because their coaches can structure a forward line.

Ours can’t.


If you genuinely have to kick to a contest, kick to a big bloke

Unlike a sport like soccer, there is a clear advantage to height in AFL, mostly granted by the height standard with a punt kick, and by the high value of the security given to a successful mark.

We give away height in the forward line too often, and rarely have players with blistering speed enough to lead to an uncontested mark (or at least not to one that doesn’t require them diminishing the real meterage gained…unless they’re running forward towards goal, which as previous mentioned, is the hard way to do it).

And even when we do bung it to a Dixon or Frampton, sadly Robbie Gray is our only guy who crumbs intelligently on a regular basis, still. But when delivery in the forward line is so often hack kicks, players have to choose between positioning to crumb, or positioning to run onto the ball. It’d be great if there was predictability in how the ball was coming in, or if our forwards (again) had the ability to see play unfold instead of relying on half glances over their shoulders when they can. Oh well.

Aidyn Johnson ahead of Frampton though, great thinking boss man. And countless others, as I have delegated tribey or someone else to provide.


Defenders must take the game on, by showing composure when attacking, not just when the opposition has taken the ball upfield

Our defenders don’t run with the ball to the point of contest; they give off early so they can reset for what they presumably believe will be *ups earlier up the field. When Jasper Pittard was good, he was the guy who would not just take the ball forward, but also take on the contest before disposing, effectively removing an opponent from the play. Smart play, and responsible for damaging disposal at times.

He used to do this, and it was why he had fan defenders even when his attempts exploded in his face (though quite often that happened because no one upfield was moving). In 2017 he did not try to do this any more. Bye Jas.

Instead we kept all the guys that give off the ball too early, disposing downfield just because they can either move the ball diagonally forward around 15m (10m actually forward) or hoof it long, and fall back, meaning we run out of ball carriers and forward options by the time we get just ahead of the centre square, meaning if/when we secure a mark in the area, we have to wait for runners from midfield to now stream forward, expending more energy and letting opposition defenders do what they do best – reset.

This is a defensive coach failure, and the failure of the person responsible for coordinating the different lines to act in concern. Gotta presume that’s Hinkley.


Outside mids are not a dirty word; why don’t ours make an impact?

We win hitouts. We win clearances. Yet our ball use and delivery forward is shocking. It feels like we’re a team of Simon Goodwins, concerned only with winning the ball, hoofing it, and not caring what happens next.

Jared Polec was far from a perfect player, but it’d be hard to argue that we used him well around our midfield. What happened to Hitout -> Extractor -> Outsider -> Forward? Other teams manage it. For a team with the density of draft picks and trades we’ve dedicated to ruck and midfield we should have the resources for it. Why doesn’t it happen with any reliability, not even against poor teams?

Again, Robbie Gray being the supergenius has been our only real ace in the hole. It’s a shame our only reliable option is someone who should’ve won a Brownlow by now, and who will retire in the next three years.

We’ve had a few options for outside players over the years, but the focus of our inside mids on playing hot potato, and not on the thing the best sides have done over the years (I always think of mid-2000s West Coast here) - creating space for other mids to clear intelligently, not just desperately.

Six years, no improvement, just increasingly more focus on hot potato ballhandling and rushed kicks into the forward 50. Coaching fail. Going backwards if anything.


SUMMARY (or TL;DR)

Under Ken Hinkley:

- We don’t have a reliable plan for bringing the ball from end to end, other than randomness & Robbie Gray
- We overwork our midfield, and particularly our forward players, when good teams work out how to reduce the load through team play.
- We don’t play intelligent football at clearances, and can’t manage outside players because of it
- We don’t give our forwards prime opportunities to secure positionally useful marks and kick goals
- Defenders are allowed to coast behind unambitious counterattacks
- Robbie Gray has played some ******* stellar football to drag us to midtable and he’s gone soon
- All our players (after a couple years in Hinkley system, draftees degrade) lack the composure to play smarter, not harder. YES THIS INCLUDES SENIOR PLAYERS.

And as very briefly mentioned at the start, there are other morale, form, and development *ups by our Hinkley led Selection Panel and Player Trade Out Team that affect our onfield too.


SACK. HIM.
 
See? You can do it. I agree with everything you’ve said. It all starts from the mentality of the players, and that is a reflection of the coach.

Just got two questions. Why could the defenders push up the ground against West Coast in Perth if Ken can’t motivate them? And why were there still people calling for players to be dropped replaced after that game?

For mine, that game showed me how we wanted to play.
 
The other thing I will say is that the lack of having attacking defenders is precisely why Broadbent - an attacking defender - was selected over Garner, who is more of a lockdown defender.
 

PAFC27

Premiership Player
Apr 28, 2016
3,706
10,847
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
See? You can do it. I agree with everything you’ve said. It all starts from the mentality of the players, and that is a reflection of the coach.

Just got two questions. Why could the defenders push up the ground against West Coast in Perth if Ken can’t motivate them? And why were there still people calling for players to be dropped replaced after that game?

For mine, that game showed me how we wanted to play.
We must be really unlucky in that we've drafted mentally weak players for a decade now
 

ctpower

Club Legend
Sep 27, 2005
1,264
1,171
Adelaide
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Other Teams
Port Adelaide
Great post Portia

The observation you made about our defenders taking the game on is so true.
That back 6 combination is critical to providing rebound and currently we have 3 or 4 players who refuse to take risks and also always look to go sideways/backwards.
When you have 3 or more of those type in your back 6 then it’s a disaster as we found out yet again on Saturday when we couldn’t get out of our back half.

Skills, skills – we can’t kick.
Of all the criticisms I have this is the big one. We have not improved in that area since the day Hinkley arrived.
 
We must be really unlucky in that we've drafted mentally weak players for a decade now

Our primary criteria - the number one thing we look for before anything else - is competitiveness. A thirst for the contest.

That’s before mental fortitude, skill, or anything else you care to mention. Our scouts look for players that will fight when the going gets tough...not for players who are resilient.

We’ll never have a team filled with ice cold players because it’s been designed that way.
 
We must be really unlucky in that we've drafted mentally weak players for a decade now

Port Adelaide’s AFL-era All-Australians drafted as zero-game rookies:

96 - Francou, Tredrea, Lade
97 - Cornes
00 - S Burgoyne, Kornes
06 - Boak, Gray
11 - Wingard

The long night returns.
 

Magus

Cancelled
10k Posts Bring Back the Bars
Dec 31, 2013
16,404
40,986
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Other Teams
Dallas Mavericks
See? You can do it. I agree with everything you’ve said. It all starts from the mentality of the players, and that is a reflection of the coach.

Just got two questions. Why could the defenders push up the ground against West Coast in Perth if Ken can’t motivate them? And why were there still people calling for players to be dropped replaced after that game?

For mine, that game showed me how we wanted to play.

Because we have at least one win like that every year. Where there is pressure and expectation to deliver on a consistent basis, we come up short year after year and it doesn't matter who's in the squad.
 

PAFC27

Premiership Player
Apr 28, 2016
3,706
10,847
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide’s AFL-era All-Australians drafted as zero-game rookies:

96 - Francou, Tredrea, Lade
97 - Cornes
00 - S Burgoyne, Kornes
06 - Boak, Gray
11 - Wingard

The long night returns.
Our development has always been something I've thought is well behind the competition. It has been for years.

How often do other sides unearth a diamond in the rough? Really accelerate a players talent.

In the past 15 years I can think of Gray, Houston, and DBJ/Westhoff to an extent.
 
Because we have at least one win like that every year. Where there is pressure and expectation to deliver on a consistent basis, we come up short year after year.

So do you think that maybe trying something different and not putting additional pressure on the players to replicate it and instead encouraging them to keep at it this year, even if they * up, might be a better use of our time?
 

Magus

Cancelled
10k Posts Bring Back the Bars
Dec 31, 2013
16,404
40,986
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Other Teams
Dallas Mavericks
So do you think that maybe trying something different and not putting additional pressure on the players to replicate it and instead encouraging them to keep at it this year, even if they **** up, might be a better use of our time?

Sure. Who's job is that and are they succeeding?
 

AwwThatsApples

Cancelled
Mar 24, 2019
1,555
967
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Other Teams
HFL
I don't think Hinkley should take the burden for ALL of these listed faults, let me explain

- We don’t have a reliable plan for bringing the ball from end to end, other than randomness & Robbie Gray
This mostly comes from the conflicting ideals of the different coaches, in this case mostly Bassett, since his strategy of locking the ball in to shut down the opposition is actually a unique idea, but it does not work in unison with the rest of the coaches who strive to play more offensively.

- We overwork our midfield, and particularly our forward players, when good teams work out how to reduce the load through team play.
This will ALWAYS occur in a team composed of a mix of old and young players. The old players are tasked with carrying and leading the young guys in order to set an example and demonstrate a much longer term football knowledge, but this can also lead to massive problems when the older players either lose form or get injured. We want to use up our old guys so our young guys can eventually take over, but until then our team is very fragile to injury.

- We don’t play intelligent football at clearances, and can’t manage outside players because of it
I DO blame Ken for almost anything regarding our intelligent football, or lack of. That being said Ken cannot always control the execution of it due to once again the inconsistent performances from old and young players. Ken simply cares more about the cooperation of the team, but not so much how it looks, so even if it is "intelligent" it will never look as such, or not likely anyway.

- We don’t give our forwards prime opportunities to secure positionally useful marks and kick goals
One half of this problem comes from Bassett and his "lock-in" solution, but the other half comes from our lack of a REAL key forward. Dixon is the only one that can be trusted with solid marks, besides 2018 where he was forced more to bring the ball down due to poor disposal from the midfield (Another problem with our scoring) but even then Dixon can only really kick comfortably from 30, while he weakens in proximity. Frampton and Marshall are young, and these are players we need to start working with more, as they clearly are not ready to take on the responsibility of taking on the key forward role, but that is what they need to learn. Ryder is NOT a key forward no matter how we try to use him. He is much better as a running mark that can find space and kick from long distances and sharp angles, but he is NOT a primary target. Westhoff is just, not a forward anymore... And now that Bassett wants to use our smaller forwards to lock down, we become even more reliant on our Key forwards to step up, but there will always be one faithful forward like Rozee or Farrell to hit the scoreboard when needed.

- Defenders are allowed to coast behind unambitious counterattacks
This is a very well thought out point, but neither Bassett or even Mongomery have built our defence up to be ambitious, because we WANT to be as offensive as possible, but the truth is we struggle in too many areas at the moment to accomplish a true offensive game style, which makes our defence issues more noticeable, even though this shouldn't even really be an issue, to begin with. Bassett's plan worked, but it slowed down our brand of football, and I feel like we can't get a very good idea of what Mongomery is trying to do due to the club trying to take the focus off of the defence.

-Robbie Gray has played some ******* stellar football to drag us to midtable and he’s gone soon
So? There have been tons of big names in football that never got to see the bright polish of a premiership cup, and Robbie has already become a Showdown medal record winner. I'm actually glad we're not as dependant on him as we used to be, and with players like Rozee and Farrell up and coming we really shouldn't waste our time feeling for Robbie.

- All our players (after a couple years in Hinkley system, draftees degrade) lack the composure to play smarter, not harder. YES THIS INCLUDES SENIOR PLAYERS
Playing smart AND hard is what wins teams premierships. Geelong, for example, has been a very smart team for the past decade, but they do not play hard enough anymore to win important games and the finals. I agree that we struggle to play smart enough, but i'd rather us find our hard football first before we find our smart, it's the balance of these two things that win teams premierships.

Ken is simply a man who has tried and failed, and unfortunately, I cannot and will not hold on to his shoulder if we have another rotten year, but I will wait until the end to see how the season plays out. YES he has been at this club for too long, but there are still many issues that Ken cannot control, or even resolve sometimes, and I think the backlash is simply too farfetched. Regardless, there are still so many issues with our club at the moment, and we need to look more at the issues themselves, and not so much at how or why those issues came to be.
 
Apr 2, 2012
1,176
3,846
Adelaide
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Not a tactical observation but what staggers me is why so few Port players show any development or improvement as they gain experience.

SPP / Wines / Dougal / Marshall etc are either all the same player they were in their first year or in some cases like SPP are somehow worse. Only Houston and Clurey to me are on the improvement arc you would expect year to year from a player as they gain more games and do more preseasons. Even most our players body shapes dont look to have changed too much.

Its painful to think that this version of Connor Rozee might be the best version we see of him as his skills and confidence slowly erode and he becomes Portified.
 
Sep 26, 2012
18,677
31,529
Adelaide
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
I don't think Hinkley should take the burden for ALL of these listed faults, let me explain

- We don’t have a reliable plan for bringing the ball from end to end, other than randomness & Robbie Gray
This mostly comes from the conflicting ideals of the different coaches, in this case mostly Bassett, since his strategy of locking the ball in to shut down the opposition is actually a unique idea, but it does not work in unison with the rest of the coaches who strive to play more offensively.

- We overwork our midfield, and particularly our forward players, when good teams work out how to reduce the load through team play.
This will ALWAYS occur in a team composed of a mix of old and young players. The old players are tasked with carrying and leading the young guys in order to set an example and demonstrate a much longer term football knowledge, but this can also lead to massive problems when the older players either lose form or get injured. We want to use up our old guys so our young guys can eventually take over, but until then our team is very fragile to injury.

- We don’t play intelligent football at clearances, and can’t manage outside players because of it
I DO blame Ken for almost anything regarding our intelligent football, or lack of. That being said Ken cannot always control the execution of it due to once again the inconsistent performances from old and young players. Ken simply cares more about the cooperation of the team, but not so much how it looks, so even if it is "intelligent" it will never look as such, or not likely anyway.

- We don’t give our forwards prime opportunities to secure positionally useful marks and kick goals
One half of this problem comes from Bassett and his "lock-in" solution, but the other half comes from our lack of a REAL key forward. Dixon is the only one that can be trusted with solid marks, besides 2018 where he was forced more to bring the ball down due to poor disposal from the midfield (Another problem with our scoring) but even then Dixon can only really kick comfortably from 30, while he weakens in proximity. Frampton and Marshall are young, and these are players we need to start working with more, as they clearly are not ready to take on the responsibility of taking on the key forward role, but that is what they need to learn. Ryder is NOT a key forward no matter how we try to use him. He is much better as a running mark that can find space and kick from long distances and sharp angles, but he is NOT a primary target. Westhoff is just, not a forward anymore... And now that Bassett wants to use our smaller forwards to lock down, we become even more reliant on our Key forwards to step up, but there will always be one faithful forward like Rozee or Farrell to hit the scoreboard when needed.

- Defenders are allowed to coast behind unambitious counterattacks
This is a very well thought out point, but neither Bassett or even Mongomery have built our defence up to be ambitious, because we WANT to be as offensive as possible, but the truth is we struggle in too many areas at the moment to accomplish a true offensive game style, which makes our defence issues more noticeable, even though this shouldn't even really be an issue, to begin with. Bassett's plan worked, but it slowed down our brand of football, and I feel like we can't get a very good idea of what Mongomery is trying to do due to the club trying to take the focus off of the defence.

-Robbie Gray has played some ******* stellar football to drag us to midtable and he’s gone soon
So? There have been tons of big names in football that never got to see the bright polish of a premiership cup, and Robbie has already become a Showdown medal record winner. I'm actually glad we're not as dependant on him as we used to be, and with players like Rozee and Farrell up and coming we really shouldn't waste our time feeling for Robbie.

- All our players (after a couple years in Hinkley system, draftees degrade) lack the composure to play smarter, not harder. YES THIS INCLUDES SENIOR PLAYERS
Playing smart AND hard is what wins teams premierships. Geelong, for example, has been a very smart team for the past decade, but they do not play hard enough anymore to win important games and the finals. I agree that we struggle to play smart enough, but i'd rather us find our hard football first before we find our smart, it's the balance of these two things that win teams premierships.

Ken is simply a man who has tried and failed, and unfortunately, I cannot and will not hold on to his shoulder if we have another rotten year, but I will wait until the end to see how the season plays out. YES he has been at this club for too long, but there are still many issues that Ken cannot control, or even resolve sometimes, and I think the backlash is simply too farfetched. Regardless, there are still so many issues with our club at the moment, and we need to look more at the issues themselves, and not so much at how or why those issues came to be.
A well thought out post and I agree with most of but as far as the club as a whole, it has let it's supporter base down.
This would not be such a big issue if Ken was let go instead of giving him an extension, he had no runs on the board and the natives were already getting twitchy.
Poor skills, lack of game plan and imo some very frustrated older players, that makes them look disinterested. I suppose if a coach was ******* my AFL career away when I only have a year or two left I would also look disinterested. We can't even come away from full back with anything that resembles a game plan.
Ken is head coach and has had years to improve but we actually look worse.
Buck stops with the coach.
 
Damn kids. They are the reason Hoff at 32 years old can't kick for goal, why Sam Gray can't kick 25m, why Motlop is invisible and why Ryder is cooked.
 
Last edited:
See? You can do it.
I know I can do it, none of the qualitative factors I wrote here are anything I haven't posted multiple times since 2005.

I agree with everything you’ve said. It all starts from the mentality of the players, and that is a reflection of the coach.
The mentality of the players is part of that, but a huge part of a positive player mentality comes not just from a coach's motivation, but from how that coach's systems work when they try to implement them. They mostly don't work.

Just got two questions. Why could the defenders push up the ground against West Coast in Perth if Ken can’t motivate them?
There was little difference in our defensive counterattack, because they largely didn't have to. Our win against West Coast was built on midfield clearances and forward press, which is why we had almost twice as many Inside 50s as they did, and half the Rebound 50s. Our defence could sit back and pick off, which is the sort of composure they already have, but not the kind that will make them excellent.

They reverted the next week. I wonder how much of that is because of Petruccelle kicking 5 goals, and which coach decided they didn't like that.

And why were there still people calling for players to be dropped replaced after that game?
Go back and read the threads yourself, I'm not your mum. Probably largely because we kicked 4.8 after half time, losing the second half.

The other thing I will say is that the lack of having attacking defenders is precisely why Broadbent - an attacking defender - was selected over Garner, who is more of a lockdown defender.
Then that shows you didn't understand what I'm talking about.

1. Every defender needs to be prepared to take the contest on when they have the ball, every single one of them. I hated back when our defence had the `get it to Peter Burgoyne, he'll work it out' method, and hate it now.

2. To be an attacking defender that can justify not getting into contests (Broady's first two games this year) you need to have superior disposal, productivity, and pace. Broady managed the second of these three with his bruise free football, but outside of once, maybe twice, a game he's still in the chip kick or hoof it club. He's not good enough to justify not playing something resembling a proper defensive role.

3. Also you were talking just a couple of weeks ago about how Broadbent's ineffective disposal came from contested disposal, which is the exact opposite of the composure our defenders need.
 

*PAF

Brownlow Medallist
10k Posts Port Adelaide - Nathan Krakouer Player Sponsor 2015 Port Adelaide - Brendon AhChee Player Sponsor 2014 Port Adelaide - Jarrad Redden Player Sponsor 2014 Port Adelaide - Matthew Broadbent Player Sponsor 2013 Port Adelaide - Foundation Sponsor Port Adelaide - Captains Club 2012 Sponsor Port Adelaide - John Butcher 2012 Player Sponsor
Feb 17, 2005
22,024
10,285
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
At the moment we go hard at the contest so that we can win the contest to create another contest further upfield and then hopefully score a goal through what Ford has correctly labelled as sourcery in another thread.

What we haven't seen is us going hard at a contest so that we can win the contest to then do something pre planned to score goals.

Unfortunately it is as simple as that.
 
We fail against the same sides so why do we continually try and play the same way when those sides are stopping us playing the way we want to? We don't have an alternative.

WCE at AO......... 0-5 under Hinkley
Gee anywhere.... 1-6
Crows vs Pyke ....1-6
Ess at Docklands 1-3
Haw in Tassie..... 0-2 thought it was 0-3
Freo in WA......... 1-5
Sydney...............3-5 We have learnt to win at the SCG but cant beat them at AO

We are so predictable and not talented enough to play the way Hinkley wants us to play against the better sides. Watch closely at not only how easy it is to pick us off with intercept marks inside 50, but also to steal the ball off us inside the packs and in tight.

Look who he has a dominate record against, the cellar dwellers and middle class sides, Gold Coast, St Kilda, North, Brisbane and Melbourne. Bulldogs and Collingwood pre 2018.

The game in Perth was our oncer. Once a year, if we are lucky twice a year, we are able to execute properly and try something different and have a win against a top side. I'd put my money on Schofield tactics being use, as he knows the WCE players and game plan well given he would have watched the WA sides the most whilst coaching Subiaco.
 
Last edited:
Jul 7, 2007
14,790
40,364
Ziggurat City
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Other Teams
LUFC, Patriots
See? You can do it.
Pretty patronising way to start your post.

Instead of goading other posters into refuting your hypotheticals, how about you provide a well-reasoned argument based on facts that shows we haven't been absolutely mediocre under Hinkley's reign in the 2015-2019 period.

For bonus points please also explain why Port Adelaide supporters should continue to place their faith in Hinkley after those 5 years of said mediocrity.

If you don't like the word mediocre, I am happy for you to substitute any of run-of-the-mill, vanilla, uninspired, dull, blancmange, pedestrian, humdrum, second-rate, or indifferent as you see fit.
 
Oct 12, 2003
8,391
1,423
Drowning my sorrows on the end of some bar
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Other Teams
NUFC, Green Bay
I know I can do it, none of the qualitative factors I wrote here are anything I haven't posted multiple times since 2005.
de
But you have only been on bigfooty since March 2019 :p
 

StrappingTape

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 29, 2012
6,170
7,226
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
When we are kicking with a five goal breeze and he has the team setting up with our forwards pushed to the 50 and our backs pushing into the middle so when they look up the ground with a huge breeze there's no forwards to kick to only 2 loose Hawthorn players and any kick goes over the players at the 50. I've never seen a worse setup than I did last weekend.
 
Back