PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley has expressed pride in the way his side saw off the challenge of a strong Brisbane outfit after losing momentum in the first half.
A six-goal-to-two second quarter had the Lions ahead by two goals at the main break before Port broke the game open with a 13-goal second half to record its first win over the Lions since 2018.
New recruits Junior Rioli (three goals) and Jason Horne-Francis (25 disposals, seven clearances and a goal) starred in the 18.18 (126) to 11.6 (72) result.
The performance and result was a stark contrast to Port Adelaide’s two pre-season showings in Perth, but Hinkley says he was confident in his side going into the match.
“We had information over three months and we felt like that was pretty consistent and pretty strong,” he explained. “We were very pleased with our pre-season but… the last game we played, which was on television, was what people got to watch and make comments about.
“I get why those comments were made and they were rightly accurate after that game but I was confident, as all the coaches were that we had a good pre-season.
“(The win) was the result of a lot of hard work. The game was going at it early, ebbing and flowing, and we had to stay really composed and I was really proud of the way they came out after half time.”
Port led in most of the statistics at the main break but let itself down with goalkicking and discipline, trailing the free kick count 21-5 at that point and conceding a number of goals from free kicks.
Hinkley said the side discussed being a good teammate at half time and he was proud with the response.
“Brisbane are clearly a very very good team, coached by (Chris Fagan), a great man,” he said. “They were always going to cause us some problems but we just helped with the problems with some humility moments we lost control of.”
“We talk a lot around humility and we talk a lot around standards and trust,” he continued.
“We went outside of a few of those in the second quarter but that was because of our desire to be good and help the team but sometimes you lose your way and you become a bit too much about yourself.
“As a footy club, we’re just not that. (And) the people who were being challenged in that space were the biggest lifters for us. That just shows how much they care.”
Critically, Port was able to make the most of its forward entries – an issue that has plagued Hinkley’s outfit in recent years with opportunities to score being wasted.
The home side was well served by four goals from Todd Marshall and three each to Rioli, Charlie Dixon and Lachie Jones, while forward Orazio Fantasia and ruck Scott Lycett got through unscathed in their return after injuries ruined their respective 2022 seasons.
Fantasia was even subbed out of the game in the last quarter to allow former Geelong forward Francis Evans to make his club debut.
After five straight losses to the Lions, Hinkley was most pleased to start the season well and see a four-quarter showing from his side.
“The first two quarters weren’t too far off where we’d expect them to be. It was a four-quarter performance,” he smiled.
“We wanted to beat Brisbane. They’d beaten us for five years in a row. We played really well up there last year and we were wounded by the end and they were good enough to beat us.
“Today we had them on our turf and we wanted to make sure we at least represented ourselves really strongly on our ground.
“We turned up today, we represented this great footy club – and the people, the members, the fans that were there today – I actually called on the boys a fair bit to make sure they could feel the passion of our supporters over the fence today and they could really feel that.”
