PORT ADELAIDE Coach Ken Hinkley says the club is lucky to be a part of midfielder Dom Barry’s return to AFL football.
Barry played five games with Melbourne but decided to quit the game in 2014 and return home to the APY lands in South Australia’s far north to be involved in cultural ceremonies and support the community.
There the 24 year-old became an influential figure in the community – mentoring young school children, driving the school bus, and tutoring students throughout the day.
The former-Demon began a teaching degree and returned to Adelaide in 2017, where he impressed with his speed and agility while playing for Glenelg in the SANFL.
Confirming Barry would make his club debut on Saturday in the Power’s season-opener against Fremantle, Hinkley was full of praise for his recruit.
“It’s an incredible story, one we’re probably lucky to be a part of,” Hinkley said.
“You know where Dom’s come from and what he’s done to get back into the AFL system, we look forward to seeing him play tomorrow afternoon.
“We thought he was a mature age player that had weapons that were going to be on show pretty early, it was just a matter of how he got through the pre-season and clearly his pre-season was pretty strong.”
Barry is expected to be part of what shapes to be a formidable midfield, which could see stars like Captain Travis Boak, Robbie Gray, Tom Rockliff, Steven Motlop and Chad Wingard rotated through and into the forward line.
Hinkley said the beauty of his side’s midfield depth is that he can change his line-up as the game unfolds.
“Where we need players, we’ll put them,” Hinkley said, ahead of his sixth season as coach of the Power.
“We’ll move it around a little bit, that’s our normal, it’s not unusual for us to put a number of players through that part of the ground and we’ll do that again tomorrow.
“The great thing is we have a big group of midfielders so we can keep our midfield quite fresh, quite dynamic and hopefully cause Freo some challenges.”
He said he expected Fremantle to pose a big challenge at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
He described the Dockers as a “well-coached” side with an “exciting” playing group, including some new young faces and experienced campaigners like 2015 Brownlow medallist Nat Fyfe and ruckman Aaron Sandilands.
The Power finished fifth on the ladder in 2017 and suffered a devastating after the siren extra-time Elimination Final loss but Hinkley said he expected an improvement this season.
He said while playing finals is a “non-negotiable” for his side, expecting that to happen because the club had brought in experienced recruits like Motlop, Rockliff and Melbourne forward Jack Watts, would be a mistake.
“This competition’s so close, so tight, that if you think just bringing in some names or people are going to make a difference to your outcomes it won’t.
“It’s about your effort and your method and that’s what it will be about again tomorrow afternoon.”
Port Adelaide takes on Fremantle at Adelaide Oval from 4:05pm on Saturday, March 24.
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