Former Adelaide forward Josh Jenkins believes Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has never truly been accepted by Power fans.
While Hinkley has a strong resume as Port Adelaide’s coach, winning the AFLCA Coach of the Year on two occasions, Jenkins got the feeling during that the former Cat isn’t loved as much as he should be in the City of Churches.
Referencing several run ins with Port Adelaide fans during his time in the city, Jenkins explained why he thinks Hinkley was never truly accepted into the fold and as a result why he’s feeling the pressure after the side’s 0-3 start to the season.
“A lot of Port fans in my time, you’re quite recognisable in Adelaide and supporters of both teams come up to you a lot,” Jenkins said on SEN Crunch Time.
“There’s a real sense of entitlement or I guess the need for people to come up and find out what’s going on in the footy world.
“I actually used to get a lot of Port fans come up to me and express their displeasure with how Ken would coach them.
“For the most part you’d say, ‘Hang on, what’s there to worry about, you’re third on the ladder’.
“But he’s never really been accepted over there, he’s never really been completely loved by the Port Adelaide fan base … which to me seems ludicrous.”
Jenkins believes one key reason why the fans haven’t warmed to Hinkley could be due to the fact that he’s an outsider and never represented the club as a player.
“A lot of the Port coaches in the last couple of decades have been Port players, Port people or Port Magpies – like Mark Williams and Matthew Primus,” Jenkins explained.
“He really picked them up (when he joined in 2013), I don’t know what the reason is, but I always got that sense … about being really in love with Ken Hinkley, even going to preliminary finals and home finals.
“Make no mistake, the heat on him will be out of control, it would be completely out of proportion with how they’re going.
“We shouldn’t forget, (Charlie) Dixon, they’ve got (Robbie) Gray out … their forward line is depleted, Aliir Aliir – Port Adelaide win that game if he plays.”
While Jenkins himself is a backer of Hinkley, he knows that things could “spiral” quickly with another couple of losses in the next fortnight.
“We need to be realistic about it … but 0-3, we never expected them to be in that position.
“They’ve got the Dees on Thursday night, 0-4 stares them right in the face.
“It can quickly spiral out of control.”
The Power will be desperate to earn their first win of the season when they host the Demons at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night.