Former St Kilda and North Melbourne midfielder Nick Dal Santo has slammed Port Adelaide president David Koch over his comments at the clubs members function.
Following the Power's gut wrenching defeat to the West Coast Eagles on Saturday night, Koch questioned whether the players were fully committed to achieving the ultimate goal of winning a premiership, rather than being content with simply participating at the highest level.
The comments have drawn wide criticism throughout the AFL industry, and Dal Santo says Koch has shown a lack of empathy towards his players following such a heartbreaking defeat.
“I absolutely hated it," he said on SEN Afternoons.
"Absolutely it is your dream to play, but it doesn’t start and end there. You don’t get to play your first game and go done, brilliant, I just played a game.
“You bust your backside; your whole life is dedicated to this. Whatever it is, you are dedicated to what you do. To then say that post a devastating loss baffles me, I’m infuriated and I’m not part of that club at all.
“I would be infuriated if the president spoke to me as a senior player or the playing group like that. He (Koch) is coming across like a supporter, no one is more disappointed in that performance than Ken Hinkley, the playing group and the players involved in that last passage of play.
“It’s staggering. As if the players are not trying anymore because they just enjoy being there. It doesn’t make any sense to me; I can’t get my head around it.
“You are putting extra pressure on the playing group and the coach, they made finals but they let one slip there’s no doubt about that. But to then have your president question the way you go about it doesn’t sit well with me at all.”
Koch hasn’t been afraid to air his frustration towards the players and Hinkley publicly throughout his tenure as president, and these latest comments could further inflame the relations between the three parties.
Dal Santo said Koch's comments resembled that of a disgruntled supporter rather than the head of a club.
"I've been in the situation where supporters have said, 'you need to win this game for us this weekend.'
"You're like, as much as I'd like to win it for you, we're trying anyway. It won't be for you directly – you can enjoy it if we can get over the line - but you almost feel like saying to Kochy, 'grab some boots, come join us. It's not that easy.'
"We played an extra 10 minutes, we were exhausted after regulation time. We let some opportunities slip, we are sitting here devastated post-game and he's going to come out and speak about the playing group like that."
On a positive side, Port's reserves won through to the SANFL decider with a win over Woodville-West Torrens on Sunday.