PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley says his side was undone by a mature and high-quality defensive team in Thursday night’s loss to Melbourne.
Port Adelaide was held goalless and to its lowest half-time score since joining the AFL, before a late rally saw it fall by 32 points to the reigning premier at the Adelaide Oval.
The 10.8 (68) to 4.12 (36) loss was the club’s fourth for 2022, leaving Hinkley’s side winless after four games for the first time in his tenure.
It was a low scoring game, particularly for much of the first half, as Port slowed the game and kept possession of the ball, until Melbourne burst away with five goals in quick succession late in the second term.
“Early in the game we played the game we had planned and it was clear the way we wanted to play and were executing pretty well,” Hinkley said after the game.
“To their credit, as a good, a great side does, as a premiership side does, they took seven or eight minutes and were able to break the game open.
“Until that point, we were playing the game we were trying to play, albeit we weren’t scoring.”
Challenged with the absence of experienced forwards Robbie Gray, Charlie Dixon and Orazio Fantasia, Port has found scoring difficult in the opening rounds.
Hinkley said his coaching group had to be creative to find avenues to goal, which proved difficult against the mature Demons outfit.
“We’re working to try and improve our scoring and we know there’s been some challenges with that because we’ve been a side that’s been used to doing it a bit differently,” he explained.
“We are being challenged to look for different ways and we are looking for different ways to score.
“Last week we were able to kick a score and this week against the best defensive team in the competition we found it really hard to get a score.”
FANS MG MVP | Vote for your Round 4 MG MVP
Port Adelaide lost Trent McKenzie in the warm-up to knee soreness and reigning Brownlow Medallist Ollie Wines was subbed out of the game at half-time with dizziness and nausea.
"Ollie wasn't well," Hinkley said.
"He's actually gone off to hospital to be checked. We're being really cautious to make sure he's OK.
“We'll update you from that once we know exactly what he's dealing with."
But it was not all doom and gloom with Hinkley taking some positives out of his side’s ability to continue to fight late in the contest and find three late goals to avoid recording its lowest AFL score.
“Other than (Melbourne’s) seven or eight minutes of second quarter play, barring us executing our skills, when we did get our chances of kicking some scoreboard pressure, you’ve got to look at the whole game and they did what a good team does and made us pay,” Hinkley said.
“They made us pay in that eight-minute period but we hung in and we kept coming.
“There’s some personnel reasons and there are some challenges around what we’ve been trying to achieve.
“We’ve got some people trying to step up. We had our fifth or sixth debutant for the club already this season and we can’t quite get the continuity of people back which can then flow into confidence of other players.”
Hinkley said that after three games in 12 days, his side would appreciate a longer break before facing Carlton at the MCG on Easter Sunday.
And, despite being winless in 2022, the coach remained resolute in his belief that his side can get back to winning and playing the kind of football it knows it can, sooner rather than later.
“No one wants it more than the people working inside the club,” Hinkley said.
“We’re desperate for the turn around.”
