Hinkley’s thinking defensively
ruck,’’ Hinkley said.
“We’ve basically spent five years building this defensive model and we want to keep improving. If you can’t defend well late in the year you can’t win.’’
Hinkley said it wasn’t just on field where Port Adelaide had impressed this season.
“It’s been a really strong response by the whole football club, I think that’s really important,’’ he said.
“It’s not just the playing group. It’s the coaches and the whole club.
“There has been a fair bit going on this year, an enormous amount of potential distractions as well as the pressure that’s been built over the past couple of years of disappointments.
“As disappointing as they’ve been, they’ve been off 10 and 12 wins and small-margin loses.
“As disappointing as it’s been, and we don’t except where we were, we weren’t that far away.’’
Hinkley said some of the Port’s coaching staff went behind the scenes with the Socceroos at their World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia at Adelaide Oval last night.
“I don’t know that we actually learn that much from other sports,’’ Hinkley said.
“Aussie rules, from a sports conditioning side of thing and training side of thing, is so different, but you certainly look at the method they teach.’’