POWER STRUGGLE: FATE ON A PLANE

PORT Adelaide’s players and staff who travelled to the Gold Coast for the Round 1 win have been in self-isolation for a week, among them coach Ken Hinkley.

The Power mentor said the group was informed on the flight back from Queensland that they would be put into two weeks of self-isolation.

“I think on Sunday after the game, we were flying back, there were some decisions being made,” he told SEN radio.

“On the flight, we were told there was the probability we would be going into isolation for 14 days, albeit the SA borders closed on the Tuesday.

“As a team and a responsibility to our state, we certainly knew our responsibility was to go into isolation and to do our part.

“We got off the plane and we went to our homes and since then we’ve been in our homes. Some boys have had some exceptions to travel back to Victoria because their borders weren’t closed.

“I think 19 of the travelling party or emergencies are isolated in homes in South Australia.”

However, Hinkley said the self-isolation hasn’t hampered his ability to coach.

“What we do in this world, we use the technology we have available, I spoke with everyone of my players last week by phone and from a team review point of view, we sent one out to everyone of our players,” he said. “It’s a real challenge, last time and the first week it seemed busy, there was plenty to be done and contact to be made.

“If you’re in this together and we are, we’ll still connect with each other, coaches, players. We need to be able to get through some of the challenges in front of us.”