Dual premiership ‘Roo David King has warned selection errors could be what gets Ken Hinkley sacked, as Port Adelaide club president David Koch weighed in on the coach’s future.
Hinkley remains contracted at the Power until the end of this season, but his time at the club has become “untenable”, according to Port Adelaide’s sole premiership skipper Warren Tredrea.
The Power have won just one game this year, and suffered an 71-point loss to Collingwood and a shock five-goal hiding in the Showdown to rebuilding rivals Adelaide.
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“He’s got problems,” King said of Hinkley on AFL 360.
“It’s a game full of errors but you can’t make them from a match committee point of view on a Wednesday.
“Second week in a row they’ve got the most damaging match up wrong.
Wines defends under fire Hinkley | 01:12
“Nick Daicos in Round 1 was tagged by Lachie Jones and that just blew up. Was a three-voter (for Daicos).
“(Then Izak Rankine for Adelaide) … This guy to get goalside and to not see it through, that’s your captain (Tom Jonas trailing behind).
“They then go to (Kane) Farrell, he goes OK at the start of the stoppage but you’re 100 per cent in or you’re getting it wrong.
“Those match ups for me are wrong.
“To allow the two game-breaking players be best on ground the last couple of weeks is a Wednesday error and Wednesday errors get you sacked.”
Statistics show it’s Port Adelaide’s midfield letting them down as the club is currently ranked 15th in pre-clearance and 14th for post clearance this season.
“The damage that (Connor) Rozee and (Jason) Horne-Francis have with their possessions are more than most … if this team is to be what we think it can be and what Ken needs it to be immediately, they can’t be also rans in the midfield.
Port legend calls for Hinkey’s ousting | 01:47
“Collingwood (have) nine players in top 60 (rated for 2023); Port have one – Darcy Byrne-Jones is equal 30th.
“You can’t subscribe to them until that changes.”
King’s take on Hinkley’s future comes just days after Tredrea called out the club for “playing a mulligan in golf” by having Hinkley see out his deal when “he’s not going to be there in 2024”.
“To be kicked off against your arch rival in your guernsey you fought so hard for and to give up six goals without a whimper … there were no answers,” he said on The Big Deal podcast.
“The longer this goes on … I can’t see Ken being recontracted.
“Ken was always in an untenable situation heading into this year.”
But Port Adelaide club president David Koch has hit back at Tredrea, stating it was “all about perspective” in regards to Hinkley’s immediate future.
“Ken is the coach of the football club for this year and it’s Round 3 for goodness sake,” he said on FIVEaa Radio.
“We always respect the dues of our past legends. Tredders has a view (laughs). Kane Cornes has exactly the opposite view and is quite critical, (has) come out quite critically against Tredders … Even one of your mob, Mark Bickley has come out and said they were just stupid comments.
‘He sort of almost stops to a walk’ | 01:03
“We respect the opinions of legends, but there are lots of opinions and lots of different opinions.
“Ken and the team need to get on with the job and they need time to breathe and get into it.
“I think the massive opinion of everybody to the comments of Warren is that you are crazy to make any judgments after three rounds.
“I understand the disappointment of members. Don’t think I’m not incredibly disappointed after the game on Saturday night.
“It is Round 3 of a very long season.
“Ken is our coach in 2023 and we will give him the time and space to do that – coach.
“Everyone knew from the outset we had a tough start to the season.
“Yes, Warren is a highly respected legend of the club, but there are lots of other highly respected legends of the club who support what the club is doing and totally disagree with Warren.”
