PORT ADELAIDE senior coach Ken Hinkley admits this week’s selection was probably the toughest of his seven-year tenure at the club.
Port has dropped the last two best and fairest winners Paddy Ryder and Justin Westhoff for its clash with Geelong, along with inside midfielder Sam Powell-Pepper and emerging defender Jarrod Lienert.
“It was an incredibly tough selection week, there’s no doubt about that,” Hinkley said at a press conference on Friday morning.
“You don’t make decisions on players who have been so important to you, like both Westy (Westhoff) and Paddy (Ryder) have been.
“Sam (Powell-Pepper) has been a big part of our stuff and Jarrod (Lienert) is just getting going.
“They are always tough decisions, but they are based around performance and based around output.”
Hinkley is extremely confident both Ryder and Westhoff can refresh, return to good form and continue to have an impact at the football club.
“You don’t take decisions like we made this week very lightly - those two people have been so important to us as a football club,” he said.
“I’ve been here seven years and Westy has been there the whole journey - he’s played 135 games in a row - it’s been a long time since we’ve dealt without Justin in the side.
“You care about them - people forget that - I genuinely care about them, and to make decisions like that, I know what that does and how much it affects them and their families and us as a football club.
“I am really, really confident sitting here that both Westy and Paddy will fight their way through this and they will come back and play some great footy for us still.”
Adding to the selection difficulty was the return to fitness of co-captain Ollie Wines, forward Charlie Dixon and the experienced Brad Ebert, who have each been named in the side along with young defender Joel Garner who will play just his second AFL game.
Hinkley is still striving for the best way to find consistency for his team within games, and the senior coach knows the importance of putting four-quarter performances together in a bid to make the finals.
“Every one of us would like to play more consistent football all the time,” Hinkley said.
“We expect a performance of a level that lasts for four quarters, not for three quarters - we played a really strong three quarters last week, but that’s not good enough.
“We are in a really, really tough competition where we are one of the teams fighting and hanging on to the part of what we set out to do at the start of the year, and that is to play finals.”
The Power host the Cats at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night, with the first bounce at 7.10pm.
