Coach Ken Hinkley dissects Port Adelaide’s 17-point to Adelaide in his post-match press conference on Saturday night.
On the difference between the two teams in Showdown XLII …
“They (the Crows) were the better team on the night. They were a bit cleaner when they needed to be. They were a bit tougher when they had to be. We didn’t quite match them in some crucial moments.
“We had our time, they had their time and they scored a bit better. I suppose in a nutshell … they probably got 10 points too many from their good play on the scoreboard and we probably weren’t able to hurt them as much going back the other way.
“They had a pretty powerful forward line and they were able to get enough score on the board – 100 points probably wins you most games.”
On the key learnings from the game …
“We’ve played Sydney in Sydney and Freo (who) beat the Bulldogs tonight. They’re all full of pressure (those games). It was a good game of footy (on Saturday night), there’s no doubt about that.
“We stuck to what we were trying to do and we still weren’t good enough to get over the line. We’re not happy about losing.
“We’ve still got some room for improvement, particularly the contested possession side of things, but other stuff we’ve worked really hard at (too).
“Tonight, against one of the better teams in the comp it showed us up a little bit (like) our ability to use the ball going inside 50m when we just needed to turn one or two into a score.
“Let’s be honest, ‘Tex’ (Taylor Walker) kicks a couple of really big goals and we weren’t able to turn any of those ones into big goals for us. They do make a difference. That’s the game.
On not capitalising on key moments late in the game …
“That’s a game of footy. Because they’re late in the game, you look at them a bit differently sometimes. You think about the (Sam) Gray snap that hits the post and (could’ve) closed the margin right up.
“It was a pressure game and they’re hard to execute exactly the way you’d like all the time. As I said, they were able to hurt us enough when they had their turn and we couldn’t quite hurt them enough.”
On whether a loss to Adelaide hurts more than other losses …
“I couldn’t care less about losing to the Crows (as opposed to another team). I care about how we play football and we lost a game of football – that’s what I care about.”
On the lopsided contested possession count, which the Crows won 176 – 145 …
“We got smashed at contested possession, which we’ve talked up and is an area of our game we work really hard at. They were far better than us. If you lose contested possession like we did tonight, you’re going to lose most games of football. We learned we’ve still got a lot of work to do in that space.”
On the influential performance of midfielder Ollie Wines …
“It’s what we’ve seen from him (Wines) so far this year already. He’s played three really strong games of football. ‘Sloaney’ (Rory Sloane) was a worthy (Showdown Medal) winner. I reckon second (place) was pretty close … Ollie was pretty strong.”
On resorting to slow ball movement down the boundary line at times …
“You’ve got to give credit to the Crows. They were able to hold us up and keep us slow. It was a high-pressure game. I think the pressure numbers would be right up through the roof for the game.
“That’s what forces you to go that way, it’s not your choice. It’s due to what the opposition are doing to you.”
