CONSISTENCY is the key.
It’s an oft-paraded phrase in football, but after an up-and-down campaign in 2015, Port Adelaide is hunting stability in its form this year.
On the eve of the season, Ken Hinkley sat down with portadelaidefc.com.au to talk Port Adelaide football, and what in store for his fourth campaign steering the ship at Alberton.
Having introduced a three-year fitness plan when he and high performance manager Darren Burgess arrived in 2013, Hinkley’s sights have turned towards the possibilities of having a mature, fit and competitive list.
Stability is present within the playing group, although the loss of experience from Kane Cornes and Tom Logan - as well as the suspended Paddy Ryder and Angus Monfries - will give greater opportunity the Power’s younger players.
In 2016, the Power consolidated its fitness base under Burgess and has honed its fitness with a mind on the reduced rotations cap that will has been effected for another brutal season.
With the fitness base in place, Hinkley now wants to spur the Power’s football exploits to new levels.
“We had a three-year plan towards our conditioning program, but we always had a longer-term view in terms of the football program,” Hinkley explains.
“We thought there was scope for some significant growth in our football program, and we thought we’d be in a position where everything was planned and ready to go for the football club going into our fourth year.
“Now is our opportunity to turn that into something more, and it’s not just in 2016 – we’re now in that opportunity time to maximise what we’ve done over the last three years.”
A summer focussed on footy
In tandem with the Power’s fitness foundations has come change at the top of its football structure.
To an extent, Hinkley and head of football Chris Davies have moved the deckchairs in the coaching panel.
Matthew Nicks has taken on the forward line, Garry Hocking has returned to sole AFL duties in the midfield portfolio with Michael Voss.
Nathan Bassett joins as defensive coach from Essendon and Chad Cornes has returned to Alberton as coach of the Magpies.
Those changes have allowed new experience to work with this hungry group of players.
Most notably, the pre-season program put a much greater emphasis on football – assimilating fitness and conditioning with skills and footy development.
That has contributed to a fresh group that has spent the summer playing football, rather than simply running laps and curling weights.
“We’ve made some significant changes. One, to the coaching panel, clearly,” Hinkley says.
“But that’s one major part of the program’s reshuffle and then we made some significant adjustments to the pre-season program.
“The way we trained the boys at times during the pre-season, the way we looked for opportunities to get the boys as fit as we possibly could without mentally fatiguing them.
“We narrowed the focus of what we needed to work on to make us a better football side.
“But we didn’t change too many things, we did stay to our core fundamentals.”
The league is so close...
Port Adelaide football is traditionally considered tough and hard, her successful teams have always been known for being mentally resilient and for working hard to win at contests.
Those are characteristics that have been present in Hinkley’s regime at Port Adelaide, but experience has been important for this maturing side.
Few would argue 2015 was disappointing for Port Adelaide, but even though losses to low-ranked sides blighted the Power’s quest for another finals berth, Hinkley sees benefit.
It allowed the group to understand the challenge of a competition he says is one of the closest among the world’s football codes.
With Gold Coast and GWS approaching the prime age range for winning football program, that gap should only continue to close in 2016.
“You’ve always got to be really careful about saying what you should, or shouldn’t win,” Hinkley says.
“People forget with the introduction of the two new franchise teams, the competition was artificially weakened, so there was a bit of a gap between the top 10 sides and, let's say, bottom eight sides.
“I think that gap has closed right up again – Gold Coast and GWS are now established AFL clubs which are going into their fifth and sixth seasons.
“Yes, you’ll start favourites and not favourites in games, but I think everyone respects that the competition is so close that many games could go either way.”
Hinkley's footy recipe to feed Power's hunger
Port Adelaide missed finals – narrowly – last year.
That outcome is something it is hungry to atone in 2016.
There are mixed expectations on Port Adelaide from outside the club heading into this new campaign – some have Port re-joining the top eight, others have it missing the finals once again.
Hinkley, though, searches for something very basic from his playing group – a consistency of “effort and method”.
That's his basic formula for on-field performance - two factors that are non-negotiable for success.
He has put the onus on all coaches and players to deliver consistent performance this year – to close the gap between best and worst, and to ensure the game plan they trained into the ground over summer is brought to every match.
It goes without saying that his non-negotiable – effort – is shown by all 22 players each week.
The Power knows its aggressive approach to football stands up against the toughest of opponents – look at its dual wins against the Hawks last year.
But if, as Hinkley says, the competition is the closest it’s been for six years, the Power needs to be top shelf every week.
“Our job and responsibility is to provide a consistent level of performance that is predictable to the way we want to do things,” Hinkley says.
“What life does to you, is it makes you experience things that teach you what you’ve done right and wrong.
“For our boys, last year was their first opportunity to experience expectation, and they got some examples of what they did right and wrong.
“They’ve been able to use that experience all over the summer to hopefully put themselves in a good place for this season.
“The true test of that comes once we start playing, and the proof is in the performance.
“If your effort and method is right, then you won’t need to worry about scoreboards and results.”
Port Adelaide hosts St Kilda in AFL Opening Round on Easter Sunday, March 27 at 2:50pm (ACDT).
MORE ON PORTADELAIDEFC.COM.AU ...
CEO: Keith Thomas's pre-season review
