It was possibly the best goal of the AFL season and it almost triggered one of the all-time great upsets in finals history.
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley was daring to dream.
Hinkley’s men had trailed by 23 points at the 21-minute mark of the last quarter of Friday night’s knockout semi-final against Geelong at the MCG.
But Port’s Justin Westhoff kicked a spectacular goal on the outside of his right boot from the boundary four minutes later and another quick goal from Hamish Hartlett made the margin just 10 points.
“I did give myself a little whack and say ‘We couldn’t, could we?’,” Hinkley told his post-match media conference.
“When Westhoff kicks that goal, hang on, maybe, and then you see, nah, I’m not going to talk about free kicks.
“Then you see a decision that happens and you think, ‘gee, maybe if we just went forward’. I don’t have a problem with Geelong. They were worthy winners.
“But we might have just scared them a little bit more.”
First-year coach Hinkley said he was extremely proud of his young side who came from 14th last season to win an elimination final against Collingwood then lead this year’s second-placed side Geelong by 23 points at halftime.
A third-quarter blitz by the Cats, when they kicked 5.6 to Port’s 1.0, gave the home side a seven-point advantage at three-quarter time.
Geelong slammed on another five goals to Port’s four in the final term to advance to next Friday’s preliminary final against Hawthorn.
Hinkley said he wouldn’t let Geelong’s 13.18 (96) to 12.8 (80) win ruin Port’s season.
“It would be unfair of me tonight not to acknowledge the effort of this club and the team and everyone around the whole football club and our supporters, everyone,” he said.
“Everyone would acknowledge Port Adelaide became a bit more of a factor again in the competition, and I’m proud of them for that.
“We’ve done a lot of positive things, and we should be able to, at some point, sit back and be positive about our season with where we’ve come from.
“But we’ve got to understand that the competition is brutal.”
Hinkley says Port’s hopes of further improvement rest on a tough pre-season campaign.
“We have to make sure every training session counts,” he said.
The former Geelong assistant coach says the 2007-09-11 premiers gave his side a football lesson.
“We played perhaps the best club in the competition maybe nearly over the history of the game,” Hinkley said.
“They stepped it up when they needed to. That’s why they’re a great side.”