PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley is taking no joy from his side’s second-half fightback against Carlton on Sunday, having found itself 50 points in arrears before the main break at the MCG.
After a slow start, Hinkley’s outfit got going in the second half, piling on nine goals to two, including a run of six in-a-row before finishing just short of a drought breaking win.
The 14.10 (94) to 13.13 (91) result consigned Port Adelaide to its fifth loss in five attempts in 2022.
After the game, Hinkley was clear that the first half was not acceptable, and made his side’s task just too hard.
Despite the 49-point half-time margin, the coach said he had belief his side could turn it around, and it very nearly did.
“We knew coming into the game that Carlton’s second halves have been quite different to their first halves,” Hinkley explained.
“We thought that if we could get a bit of scoreboard pressure going that we were still in the game.
“It sounds a bit silly at 50 points down but that’s what we believed.”
As the saying goes, it really was a game of two halves, with Carlton’s twin forward towers Charlie Curnow (five goals) and Harry McKay (three) getting plenty of service from midfielders Sam Walsh (38 disposals), George Hewett (33) and Adam Cerra (32).
Port’s second half fightback was built on a willingness to take more risks with the ball and move it faster into its forward line.
With all of the momentum heading into the last quarter, despite trailing by 17 points at the final change, Port was unable to make the most of several opportunities in front of goal and was left to rue inaccuracy in the final stretch where it booted 3.4.
Hinkley said there was significant room for a lot of improvement but he took positives from the work of Zak Butters, Connor Rozee, debutant ruckman Sam Hayes and Karl Amon around the ball and Ryan Burton’s 29-disposal, two-goal effort in his 100th AFL game.
He said despite taking some belief from the second half, the first half would be the key focus of the team review.
“It’s the very question I just asked the players,” Hinkley said. “Do we want to spend more time in our review of a game like that in poor first half or our positive second half? I think an honest football club will spend time in where it got beaten, and that was the first half.
“As positive as the second half was from sticking at it, not giving up, keeping to task – we can take something from that.
“But, we can’t deliver a margin of 50 points at half time in a game like that.
“I felt like the boys were absolutely ready to play this week,” he continued. “I knew Carlton were going to be fast starters.
“But to be that poor, no, we needed to be better than that’s why we’ll spend a lot of time making sure we look at the first half of the game because it’s not just the first five minutes, or ten minutes.”
After losing ruckman Scott Lycett for at least three months to shoulder surgery, Hinkley said he was “proud” of Hayes’ debut.
He was also optimistic that Brownlow Medallist Ollie Wines would be able to play next week against West Coast after a health scare.
Sitting bottom of the ladder and winless after five games, Hinkley remained resolute in his belief that his side could turn its season around and play finals.
“I’ll continue to believe that and I’ll continue to work towards that,” he said.
“It’s enormously challenging – there’s no doubt about that – but I’m not going to give up and the team won’t give up.
“We’ll keep to task and keep going.
“In my first year we went 5-0 in the first five rounds. We then went 0-5. We made the finals.
“Does it matter when you lose your five-in-a-row if you can win enough? I don’t know, but my history tells me you can lose five in-a-row and still make finals.”
