PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley has praised his side’s ability to hang in the game despite being dominated in key statistics in its win over Melbourne on Friday night.
The Demons won the disposals (357 – 336), the contested possessions (177-158) and tellingly the inside 50 count (68-39) but couldn’t shake off the Power, which took the lead in the final quarter and held on to win by 10 points.
It was the Power’s third win in a
“Melbourne had some dominance in some key stats… but we had a willingness to stay there,” Hinkley said.
“I thought our pressure was through the roof, our backline defended amazingly well under a fair bit of pressure.
“Even though the (forward) entries were so far against us, we never really looked out of the contest.”
The Power trailed at every change in a game where the real battle was in the centre as two sides which pride themselves on their contested work went head to head.
Sam Powell-Pepper had 15 disposals but he broke the club record for tackles with 17 – the highest this season by any AFL player.
Hinkley was full of praise for the youngster.
“He had 94 pressure points, that’s just off the charts and would be up there in the record books too I would imagine,” Hinkley said.
“Again, when it’s not your night you just get your grunt going and keep hammering in and keep whacking in and I thought Sam, Ollie worked well into the game and they just kept at it, even though they got beaten around the ball – and they would admit that.”
Tom Jonas was enormous in his first game back after a minor hamstring injury.
The big defender had 20 disposals, eleven marks and 12 one-percenters as he and his defensive teammates stood firm under immense pressure.
“He’s a pretty good player isn’t he,” Hinkley said.
“All the great backs in the competition, well Tommy’s a part of that.
“He’s certainly in that conversation about who the best backs are.
“Jack Hombsch missed out tonight but you can see why.”
It was the Power’s fifth win in six matches and ends a run of three games at home.
Hinkley said it was important to keep winning, even when his side was beaten in most areas.
“We’ve lost games like that in the last 12 months, and big games where we’ve dominated entries but haven’t been able to put the score on the board,” Hinkley said.
“Sometimes you have just got to find a way to take your chances and I thought tonight we found that way to keep in the game.
“Melbourne are
Both teams knew the stakes… we’ve gone for our third game in a row on the big stage – Friday, Thursday, Friday – and we won all three and we beat Melbourne and Richmond among them as well as the Bulldogs last week.
“There’s some big scalps in there so it felt pretty pleasing for everyone tonight.”
