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Kane Cornes has played down Port Adelaide‘s straight-sets finals exit at the hands of Brisbane and GWS, saying coach Ken Hinkley shouldn’t worry about his future.
Despite Port Adelaide struggling with list deficiencies which saw them cough up 13 goals in their 23-point loss to the Giants on Saturday, Cornes believes the “whole club” should be examined.
“It’s a whole club approach. It’s too short-sighted to just focus on the senior coach,” Cornes said on Nine’s Footy Classified on Monday night.
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Hinkley’s finals record isn’t pretty, with five wins and seven losses coming during his 11-year tenure.
More importantly, he has only recorded two finals wins in his last 200 games as coach.
But Cornes didn’t lay blame on Hinkley alone.
“It that the coach, or is that a whole of club theory?” Cornes asked.
“I thought at times it looked like they were running in quick sand, that they didn’t defend and they refused to defend.
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“It was men against boys and it was the same against Brisbane.”
Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd broke down where he believes the Power went wrong in September.
“Defence, we’ve been talking about this for years. How long has Trent McKenzie been monstered? And yet in another big game, Jesse Hogan rag dolls him,” Lloyd said.
But there could be a solution to Port’s woes, with the trade period looming.
The Power have been linked to Geelong big man Esava Ratugolea, Essendon’s Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and the Western Bulldogs’ Jordan Sweet.
However, Cornes isn’t convinced the trio would make any difference to Port Adelaide’s list.
“It’s not exciting me at all. It’s not getting my blood flowing,” Cornes said.
Lloyd suggested the Power use the trade and draft period to instead find a middle man, something he believes they lacked during the finals.
“I even think ‘are they one midfielder short?’,” Lloyd said.
“We laud it (Port’s midfield), but they’ve been smashed in two big finals.”
The suggestions come after Port Adelaide champion Warren Tredrea grilled the club’s poor finals record on his podcast ‘The Big Deal’ after the loss to the Giants.
“You know what? I was disgusted in seeing this. This is the same coach who said “it’s a bit scary playing finals”. No, it’s not. It’s daunting, it’s exciting, it’s nervous. Footballers are competitors. You don’t get scared of a competition. You’re apprehensive. You want to take it on,” Tredrea said.
“Ruthlessness needs to be put back into the Port Adelaide footy club.
“This is the third final in a row where we haven’t showed up.”
