See what Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley had to say following his side’s 15-point loss to Adelaide on Saturday night.
On yet another classic Showdown contest…
“Our persistence almost won it for us. Our willingness to stay dirty, hard, strong in the contest, we won clearances. All those things are crucial to us winning.
“Our ability to use the ball, when we play well, is the only thing that causes us grief because I think our effort, our contest, our defence – they’re the heartbeat of our side – they stand up.”
In where the match was won and lost…
“What lost it for us was turnover. I can’t hide away from that. 11 goals, 14 points I think they scored from turnover – 80 points.
“Some of that they create, some of that we created again tonight. The start of the last quarter was typical, the first three scoring opportunities I think they got off us and they had the ability to hurt us. That was the game.”
Despite the result, it was a gutsy performance by an under-manned Power…
“Structurally I thought we stuck really strong. We have 10 of our best 22 (players) probably not out there tonight and they had their best 22 out there, so structurally I thought that was really pleasing.
“It just goes to show if you bring the effort and you stick to what we know, the personnel – we’d love to have them – but it doesn’t give you the be-all and end-all.
“Stick to what you know and stick to what you want to play like… the way we did tonight.”
On the Showdown Medal voting…
“I thought Eddie Betts was stiff (to not win the Showdown Medal), that’s what I thought.
“I might have been a bit hurt by the scoreboard perhaps, but I thought Eddie was (fantastic).”
On Rory Sloane’s accidental hit on Brad Ebert…
“Brad just keeps going to the contest, keeps working really hard and tonight’s (incident) wasn’t a nice one for him to cop, that opened him up.
“Rory is a great player. He got in a contest where he made a mistake in the contest; there was nothing deliberate in it.
“He made the contact, that’s the only thing Rory would probably be concerned about I imagine. Brad and him wouldn’t have a problem with the incident at all.”
