Opinion Sack Hinkley 3 - 2021 is worse than 2020 already

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Sep 26, 2012
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I reckon I had us around 11th or so.
With the squad we had and a year for Monty and Schofield to settle in, I had us between 5th and 8th. The bonus that has helped us is the form of Butters and early in the season Duursma. Ollie and Rocky are playing well together NOW and the continued excellence of Skip (Boak) is fantastic. Three players that imo are making a massive difference to previous failed seasons are SPP, Dixon & DBJ my favourite because he plays like a Port man should.
 
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With Harris Andrews injury for Brisbane, Geelong having serious doubt cast over them after their all too familiar failure to launch in a big game against the Tiges, and Wet Toast having to do it all from outside of the top 4 I'm not sure we are still a clear 5th. If we are 5th there sure isn't much between the top 5 any more, or certainly not between the 4 teams behind the tigs.

Sportsbet currently has us as 4th favourite as below. I maintain they are overrating the Cats and have done all season.

View attachment 962556
This is the ladder of the mini-league between the top-4 teams.

PointsForAgainst%
Geelong8195134146%
Richmond8211165128%
Brisbane417220385%
Port417224869%

Brisbane gets better odds because of the location advantage.
Richmond 2 out of the last 3 premierships.
We are where we belong.
 

GoTheMightyCrows

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Oct 8, 2019
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Rockcliff old and slow.
Wines poor disposal.
SPP get ball kick ball.
Boak fit as always, lucky we had him or it may have been a massive blow out.

It took Hinkley half a game of footy to put Rozee in the middle. Ken gets caught flat footed more than his players.

Schofield deserves players that can actually win the ball and deliver it correctly.

Sack Hinkley.
So, you want to get rid of Rockliff, Wines, SPP and Hinkley?
 
Underrated has been our ability to close out games. Our record in close games for the past 6 years has been nothing short of diabolical. This year, we're 6 from 6 in games decided by 26 points or less. That makes a huge difference to your ladder position at the end of the year.
 
Sep 26, 2012
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So, you want to get rid of Rockliff, Wines, SPP and Hinkley?
This was how they were playing in previous seasons. And no, just Ken.
You can only judge players and coaches on performance, at the time Rocky was slow and out of form, SPP was getting the ball and kicking blindly into the forward line and Wines could not dispose of the footy well. This season it's like players and coaches have been put on warning and so far all are responding.
Oh by the way, it's easy to troll through posters previous posts made some time back, not a good idea.
 
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backtozero

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Jul 26, 2020
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Underrated has been our ability to close out games. Our record in close games for the past 6 years has been nothing short of diabolical. This year, we're 6 from 6 in games decided by 26 points or less. That makes a huge difference to your ladder position at the end of the year.

It would be interesting to know where the belief comes from. The group seems more confident, more relaxed and more tight-knit than previous seasons.
 
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So for those who had us below the 8, what is the reason we’re top of the ladder with one minor round game to play?
Hinkley has finally been doing what many on BigFooty have been calling for him to do for many wasted seasons.
 

EskimoPAFC

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Dec 17, 2017
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So for those who had us below the 8, what is the reason we’re top of the ladder with one minor round game to play?
A lot of things, but the below are pretty crucial:

1. Genuine leadership. The second the no-captains disaster was ended you could immediately see the change in TJ and Ollie. Both have excelled in their roles as opposed to both being rudderless and frustrated with what happened last year.

2. Structure and height. We've committed to playing multiple talls in our forward line, and have backed that in all season even when it's meant giving games to out of form or new KPFs in Pistol, Mitch & Todd. It means the times when we are struggling to find avenues and just bombing it in we are at least putting it on the head of a bloke who might be able to bring it to ground rather than just bombing it on to short people and getting intercept mark after intercept mark, and when things are going our way we are more likely to capitalise by finding multiple good options.. We've also played a genuine ruckman every game this year that I can remember. No more destroying defenders and forwards like Charlie or Trengove by throwing them in there constantly.

3. Speed and desire to creatively take the game on. We go the corridor, we back in our speed and skills and aren't afraid to make mistakes. It feels to me like a case of going from micro-management to backing in your players, I think it's partially due to Schofield's influence and partly due to just how good our outside guys have been this year. We aren't just going in to chipping "minimise damage" routines when it's tough.

4. Injury toll - we have managed our injury list well and our depth players have performed. Simple luck this one.

5. Players excelling. McKenzie is the obvious one, if you had made a chart pre-season of how he might go this year I'd say he would be well beyond even the top end you would have thought possible. Butters another that you would have thought might struggle to back up his first year but instead absolutely went to another level. Across the board far more success stories than disappointments in our best 22.

The funny thing is how interlinked these things all are. Our players take the game on because they know they are backed in and have good leadership and know that they are more likely to get reward for effort when they do go forward, which makes them more confident, better players. It's an upward cycle of momentum.

I choose to take the glass half full path and look at how exciting this all is for this year and beyond, but I can also understand the glass half empty frustration of now knowing that with a few small tweaks over the last 5 years we might have achieved something sooner with this list.
 

EskimoPAFC

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This is the ladder of the mini-league between the top-4 teams.

PointsForAgainst%
Geelong8195134146%
Richmond8211165128%
Brisbane417220385%
Port417224869%

Brisbane gets better odds because of the location advantage.
Richmond 2 out of the last 3 premierships.
We are where we belong.

Yeah this is fair, the post I was replying to had us as a clear 5th which is where I disagreed more strongly. I'd have us 3rd fave but think 2-5 are close, and I agree with you on Brisbane and Richmond. For me I just think the Cats have shown us time and time again they dominate H&A but don't stand up in big games, I was ready to change that opinion if they'd beaten the Tiges, but they just capitulated under pressure like they always do.
 

Coobk001

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Nothing bad about making wrong predictions. What is bad is when you make wrong predictions, refuse to give credit when your expectations have been exceeded and then expect others to keep listening to your predictions again as if they hold any weight.

What is the point of all the doomsday sh*t at this point in time? Imagine we see some success and you spent the whole year being unhappy. Why ruin it for yourself?
Far out. Except i have given credit. I have stated that Hinkley has deserved his new contract and done a good job. I've commented on the fact that he's extracting results and the worm is turning. I've also admitted I picked us to finish 9th.

You've picked on a theoretical scenario that I wrote which was an intentional counter response to a thread that was created to say how everything was going to work out. I gave the alternate possibility. Its not, not accepting my wrong predictions, I have accepted I was wrong. You've just missed the context which it appears you've done a lot of.

I'm a realist, im obviously happy with where we are, I think we've done great, and I hold out hope of something special. I dont think we've really overperformed, I felt we shouldve been top 4 based on our statistics last year, but I just never believed Hinkley would actually finally start getting those sorts of results based on the evidence of his entire tenure.

Ultimately though as a realist it will exceed my expectations and be a shock if we win the flag but if we do I'll lap it up, and I'll be first In line to create the extend Hinkley thread. In the mean time, I can't deny what I see, and that is a team that I dont think will win the flag. Thats realism.

Imagine also being a guy that walks into the sack hinkley thread and starts talking about people having negative opinions on what he will deliver. You're literally walking into a thread where people have different opinions to you and then whinging about it. Stupidity at its finest.
 
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JimmyBC

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Apr 24, 2020
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I don't know why anyone has to justify themselves in this thread, as we speak we have achieved absolutely nothing & if/hopefully when we do old mate has been given more time than just about anyone in history to achieve it.. any 'I told ya so' malarkey is from people with very low football standards.
 
Going into this season thinking we were going to be a top 4 or top 6 type of team would've been based on nothing more than blind optimism. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with blind optimism, teams can and do improve year on year. But all actual evidence pointed to that not being the case. It's fantastic that we've exceeded those expectations and I don't think anyone could possibly argue we haven't improved quite dramatically this year.

As for Hinkley, he is judged on his whole body of work, which is mediocre. There will always be question marks on a Port Adelaide coach who hasn't delivered a premiership - and the longer the wait, the bigger the question mark. And this is Port Adelaide not Glenelg - finishing 3rd or 4th won't make him a successful coach. He'll either leave the club a premiership coach or a failed coach, there is no middle ground.
 

Byron!!!

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Mar 18, 2012
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Underrated has been our ability to close out games. Our record in close games for the past 6 years has been nothing short of diabolical. This year, we're 6 from 6 in games decided by 26 points or less. That makes a huge difference to your ladder position at the end of the year.

Progression to the mean with luck in both winning some coin flips and key players staying injury and suspension free!


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 

Chachi

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Fu** No
This is the ladder of the mini-league between the top-4 teams.

PointsForAgainst%
Geelong8195134146%
Richmond8211165128%
Brisbane417220385%
Port417224869%

Brisbane gets better odds because of the location advantage.
Richmond 2 out of the last 3 premierships.
We are where we belong.
This is far too simplistic. It doesn't factor in ground location, injuries, form, head space, umpiring and more. At the same time you can't completely ignore it nor treat it as gospel.

The Cats were primed for that game, like we were primed for the Tigers. The Brissy game could have went either way and was played at the Gabba. In fact all but the Richmond game was in Queensland, sure not a true away game but opposition teams are settled there atm.

All those teams are capable of beating the others on their day. That includes us.
 

El_Scorcho

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- Much more cohesive ball movement
- Better defensive structures, especially further up the ground
- Tall structure up forward as opposed to kicking on the head of smalls
- Much improved clearance work which has allowed for deep f50 entries
- Improved form from our A graders in Jonas, Wines, Rockliff, Dixon, Hartlett and Boak
- Improved reliable form from our 2nd stringers in McKenzie, SPP, Butters, Ebert, Marshall
- Only a few players that have regressed - Rozee, Duursma slightly, Burton through injury, Westhoff age

Great post.

It just looks like we have a plan and we're sticking to it. Players trust the game plan and they're flourishing in it.

I've always been a big believer that good structure leads to cohesive ball movement because players know they'll have targets forward of the ball and can take the game on accordingly. The 3 tall setup has been massive.

The entire midfield has been much better. Better clearance work, better defensive clearance work, and we've suddenly uncovered a fleet of good outside mids when we looked like we basically had none post Polec and Wingard leaving. I assume a lot of that is down to Schofield.

Overall we're a much more cohesive team and the players now trust the game plan and trust each other.
 

Harlott

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No one seems to be mentioning how much more of a brutallly physical game we're playing this year. We've had a few blips along the way but our willingness to really make an impact at contests led by Jonas, Charlie, Butters, Wines, DBJ, SPP to mention a few, together with our increased tackling pressure is a real positive approaching finals. These traits have been very evident in our best wins this year.
 
Ken hasn't done anything astonishing coaching wise this year. He's just finally getting most of the basics right after years of getting them completely wrong. All it makes me think is how many more games and finals we would have won over the last 5 seasons if he'd been getting the basics right the whole time.
 
Jul 8, 2015
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Ken hasn't done anything astonishing coaching wise this year. He's just finally getting most of the basics right after years of getting them completely wrong. All it makes me think is how many more games and finals we would have won over the last 5 seasons if he'd been getting the basics right the whole time.
Blah!
 

PowerLil

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Ken hasn't done anything astonishing coaching wise this year. He's just finally getting most of the basics right after years of getting them completely wrong. All it makes me think is how many more games and finals we would have won over the last 5 seasons if he'd been getting the basics right the whole time.
Further to this, I don't believe they're his calls.
 
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