Team effort needed to beat Ablett: Hinkley
Ken Hinkley says the entire Power team will need to play well defensively if it is to curb Gary Ablett's influence on Saturday.
“I didn’t want to put any limits on where the group was,” said Hinkley at his pre-match press conference.
“We will be pushing as hard as we possibly can to achieve as much as we can.”
The first hurdle in front of the Power is a rapidly improving Gold Coast Suns side led by their highly rated captain Gary Ablett.
Many pundits are expecting Ablett to add a second Brownlow to his growing list of accolades at the end of the season.
Hinkley was straightforward on how to curtail the influence of the dominant Ablett, saying a full-team effort would reduce the impact the superstar midfielder could have on the game.
He said veteran tagger Kane Cornes could be in the mix to play against Ablett on Saturday.
Cornes was beaten early by Ablett the last time the two sides met despite having an exceptional performance against him in 2012.
“It’s probably one-all between the two, to be honest,” said Hinkley.
Dom Cassisi replaced Cornes as Ablett’s tag in Round 4 and had a lauded performance.
Cassisi will miss Saturday’s match with hamstring tightness, although Hinkley hopes to have him back for the Power’s next game against Fremantle in Perth.
“Hopefully it’s only for a week (Cassisi’s injury) … he was a fall-back for us last time (against Ablett),” he said.
Port Adelaide plays the Gold Coast Suns at AAMI Stadium at 1:40pm (ACST) on Saturday.