The difficulty has been adjusting to being a small fish in a big pond. In fact, we haven’t adjusted, and that’s the problem. Culturally, institutionally, we expect more than is possible at this level for a club of our size. Such is the downside of having a culture of unrelenting excellence: failure is a crisis.
Our club’s motto is literally: “We exist to win premierships”. But we have only one in the AFL, our 2004 grand win over the Brisbane Lions. I was there, and it remains one of the greatest days of my life. But I was also there in 2007 when we lost to Geelong in our last grand final appearance; I will not speak about it.
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley.Credit: Getty Images
For too many years now, we have been close to glory, while also feeling a million miles away from it. Preliminary finals in 2014, 2020, 2021. The extra-time elimination final heartbreak against West Coast in 2017. The unsurprising straight-sets exit last year. I am a generally optimistic person, but this stuff grinds you down.
They didn’t have to deal with this in the ’50s and ’60s, the heyday of Fos Williams. Or the 1980s and ’90s, when John Cahill and Russell Ebert were coaching, Greg Phillips, Bruce Abernathy, Tim Ginever and Scott Hodges were running around and my dad and uncles were in the stands.
Mark Williams’ most iconic scene as Port Adelaide coach.Credit: Getty Images
The best, as Tony Soprano says, is probably over.
I like current coach Ken Hinkley. I like the way he wears his heart on his sleeve. That’s us. I do think he’s been in the job for longer than his finals record deserves, but I am extremely open and indeed eager to be proved wrong.
I thought Port fans were within their rights to boo him earlier this year when we lost to the Brisbane Lions in a game dedicated to the 20-year anniversary of the 2004 flag. We lose too many important games to be taken seriously, and our semi-final win over Hawthorn the other night doesn’t change anything. Hinkley is, unfortunately, the common denominator.
But we were considered chokers back in the day, too. I was there at Football Park in 2003, the last time we faced the Swans in a final. We finished top for the second year in a row but, like in 2002, we lost our first final at home. Sydney were ruthless. Allan Scott, our major sponsor, said we’d never win anything under Mark Williams. We know how that turned out.
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I’ll be up in the media box on Friday night, pushing my emotions aside, looking at things objectively, like I do all the time. My head says we are no chance. My heart agrees. The 8-0 record against the Swans is a fluke. Sydney are the best team in it and when the SCG crowd comes alive, they are an untameable beast.
But just quietly, I hope Hinkley pins a printout of this article on the walls of the change rooms, like he did last week with Jack Ginnivan’s Instagram comment, and it helps brings about the improbable.
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