PORT ADELAIDE coach Ken Hinkley has described the mood after Saturday night’s Showdown LI as “total disappointment”, despite seeing signs of improvement in his side.
Port seemed to have Adelaide’s measure and led for most of the contest before the Crows whittled away Port’s last quarter lead and wound up with a shot on goal after the siren for a free kick on Lachlan Murphy.
With the forward hurt and unable to take his kick, Jordan Dawson stole victory with the 15.6 (96) to 13.14 (92) result condemning Hinkley’s side to its third straight loss to start the season.
The Port coach lamented his side’s inaccuracy and inability to get things right in crucial moments.
“Footy has a way of giving you a whack and it certainly did that again tonight, when we had six or seven more scoring shots,” Hinkley said after the game.
“The game probably should have been won but that’s just a fundamental thing.
“Showdowns seem to have a way of doing things like that. You just think, how can they keep delivering and ending up in these epics.
“An after the kick siren, a bounce that goes the wrong way. The stories just keep getting written. It doesn’t make me feel any better.”
Hinkley said among the takeaways, his side failed to make the most of its opportunities with poor accuracy in front of goal, defensively it allowed the Crows to score too easily, and it didn’t get big moments right.
But after a terrible showing against Hawthorn last week, he saw some signs of improvement.
“There was clearly some stuff tonight that was better but not super,” Hinkley said.
“It was better. But you just keep working. You stay in the now, you work really hard. You understand how tough and difficult football can be and you’ve just got to keep turning up.
“We’ll keep finding those opportunities to improve and keep asking players to continue to work really hard to improve their own game.
“We don’t get better unless we continually put our hand up and say that wasn’t what we need to be, otherwise we’ll continue to face the same problems.”
The first two rounds saw the Power’s forward line failing to hit the scoreboard but Saturday night saw Todd Marshall bag a career-high five goals and Mitch Georgiades and Sam Mayes boot two each.
Hinkley praised Marshall for showing what he is capable of after being challenged over recent weeks.
“Todd should feel proud of himself tonight because he’s copped plenty,” he said. “He’s a talented young player who knows what he needs to work on and what we like about him and love about him.
“His teammates trust him to compete hard. They know he hasn’t been getting the results but you could see the reactions to him tonight that they care about him.”
With a meeting against the reigning premiers Melbourne on Thursday, there is little time to dwell on the result.
Hinkley said the game would be thoroughly reviewed, the group would prepare well and be ready to go again.
“We understand the expectation upon us and we embrace that expectation and accept that,” he said.
“We’re all on the same page. I don’t think we’re on separate pages (to our supporters) when it comes to how we all feel.”
