PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley has used a speech at the club’s best and fairest event on Friday night to urge the club faithful to let go quickly of 2018 and show courage in approaching next season.
Hinkley said football seasons can be brutal, as the club experienced this season, missing the finals after such a strong first 15 rounds.
But the Power mentor said it was time to look ahead and dream big.
“I’m reading a book at the moment, it’s quite an interesting one – it’s called “Letting Go,” he said.
“I think that’s our issue, we need to be able to let go of what happened this year quickly – we have to learn from it.
“We can’t be like an ostrich and put our head in the sand. We can’t ignore the lessons we’ve learned but you have to let go to get better.
“If you don’t let go you never heal. You’ve got to mourn a little bit and you’ve got to heal and that’s really really important for us as a footy club.
“Let’s not sit around and blame anyone or anything – let’s get on with the task of making sure we get better.”
Hinkley thanked the board for again backing him in despite the disappointing finish to the season.
He said the Western Bulldogs, Richmond and this year Collingwood had shown that things can turn around very quickly and there was no reason Port Adelaide couldn’t achieve the ultimate success in 2019.
“Keep dreaming about what you want from our football club. We all need to continue to believe in it. As hard as it’s been, you have to continue to believe,” he urged the more than 1000 people in attendance.
“We work as hard as we possibly can to get into the position that we did this year and we’ll maximise it.
“Don’t forget what football seasons are like. They’re brutal and they’re tough and they’ll kick you really hard.
“But we’ve seen what clubs can do and how they can respond quickly.
“We are so close, I know it feels like we were so far away at the last three or four weeks but we are so so close and I’m telling you don’t give up on it.”
He finished with a challenge to everyone involved with the club to pick themselves up and go again.
“There’s a simple message and again it comes from the book I’m reading,” he said.
“Greatness comes from the courage to overcome obstacles.
“The courage to get back up and do it again, the courage to start pre-season the way we need to start pre-season.
“Let’s as a football club show that we still have courage in 2019 and bring it on.”
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