Port Adelaide players used to be just hungry. Now, they’re getting greedy for another taste of AFL finals success, coach Ken Hinkley says.
Hinkley says his players are far from satisfied as they enter Friday night’s AFL semi-final against Geelong at the MCG.
“They want more,” Hinkley told reporters in Adelaide on Thursday.
“And if people say we have got nothing to lose – we have plenty to lose.
“We want to keep playing. The team want to keep playing. And the boys are really committed to trying to do their best to make sure that happens.”
Hinkley knows few pundits give Port a chance of upsetting Geelong – but he doesn’t care.
“Everyone thinks we’re probably less likely to win again this week, but that doesn’t worry us – that is perception,” he said.
“We know that if our best football is there and we can apply pressure defensively, we’ll give ourselves a chance.”
Nor was Hinkley fazed by Geelong’s nine-game winning streak against Port, which includes a pair of comprehensive wins this season.
“We have proven that those things don’t bother us too much – they are history. We have got to go about creating a future,” he said.
Hinkley said Port’s stunning elimination final upset of Collingwood further boosted belief of his charges that they belong in the AFL’s upper echelon.
“Clearly it’s great for your confidence, and confidence is a really important thing at this level – the teams are pretty close,” he said.
“We can certainly go in with some confidence that we have been to the ‘G, we have been to a final and we have played pretty well.”
But the Power coach was mindful of the challenge presented by the Cats, who were beaten at home by Fremantle in a qualifying final last Saturday.
“Yes, they got beaten by a great side last week,” Hinkley said.
“But I absolutely know what they will come out and deliver tomorrow night, and that will be a fierce contest for us. And if we’re not up for the contest, we will find ourselves in trouble really quick.”
The respect is mutual with Geelong still fond of Hinkley, who carved a decorated playing career at the Victorian club and later spent six years there as an assistant coach.
“He is a good friend of the club,” Geelong’s football operations manager Neil Balme told reporters in Geelong on Thursday.
“He understands footy well. He understands people well … the players would really like him for that and he understands what they go through.
“He’s pretty good at dealing with different sorts of people – that is probably his strength.”
