PORT ADELAIDE senior coach Ken Hinkley was thankful to come away from the MCG with four points on Sunday evening, conceding his side did not play its best football against Collingwood.
Trailing by as much as 26 points after conceding the opening four goals, Port persevered and took control of the contest in the final term, holding off a late Collingwood resurgence to record a gutsy one-point win away from home, winners 8.11 (59) to 8.10 (58).
Collingwood had the game on its terms for much of the match, but Hinkley was pleased to see his side grind out a result and bank the win regardless.
“Scrappy and hard-fought, we got the four points, that’s about all I can give you to be honest,” he told reporters of the performance at a press conference post-game.
“Clearly from our point of view it wasn’t a great game.”
Hinkley praised the hosts for bringing a clear game plan to shut down Port’s ability to open the wide expanses of the MCG and create scoring avenues.
Collingwood monopolised possession throughout the contest, chipping it around and racking up marks to keep the ball out of the hands of Port’s dangerous ball users, a display of “a pretty good brand of footy” according to Hinkley.
However, Port’s mentor remained positive about the overall performance of his troops as they approached the halfway mark of the season.
“I’m very (glass) half full. Very much half full. We’re 7-3,” Hinkley declared.
“At the start of the year if you’d told me we’d be 7-3 after 10 rounds, I ever the optimist would say I want to be 10-0, but in AFL football I know 7-3 is a pretty good result.
“At the end of the season we’re not going to sit back and go ‘well gee you played bad against Collingwood at the MCG (in Round 10).’”
Facing a 13-point deficit at three quarter time, Hinkley challenged his side to open the game up and get the scoreboard ticking over in the final term in order to boot a winning score.
“We needed to kick a score and that was the message,” he explained.
“Let’s just go after this a little bit and take some risks in the game.
“Basically, it was play with a bit more enthusiasm when we get the ball.”
Veteran forward/midfielder Robbie Gray proved decisive in attack for Port.
Gray helped his side shrug off a goalless first quarter by slotting its first two goals of the day and then converted a crucial major in the final term to cut Collingwood’s lead to one point.
Hinkley was again thankful for the match-winning ability Gray has been able to deliver throughout his career at Port Adelaide.
“We had some people, Robbie in the front that we had to rely on a bit of quality to get it done,” Hinkley said.
“He’s done it forever for us. He’s always been reliable when we’ve needed him. I was pretty grateful he was out there today, no doubt about that when you win a game like that.”
Hinkley was also full of praise for young ruckman Peter Ladhams, who fought hard against an early stoppage onslaught from one of the competition’s premier rucks in Brodie Grundy.
Grundy was influential in Collingwood gaining the early ascendency, but Hinkley said Ladhams was equally as important swinging the momentum of the game back the other way in the latter stages.
“I thought it was a really interesting (match up). Grundy early tore us (apart), he was the reason they were in front,” Hinkley said.
“I thought Pete Ladhams did a really good job, I really did.
“Brodie’s a great player, I’ve always thought he has been, and I thought Pete’s ability to stay in it and fight back, that’s a young ruckman against the elite of rucks.
“I thought he did a really manful job for us.”
