Adam Cooney is holding firm on Port Adelaide, saying he wouldn’t write off Ken Hinkley’s side going deep into this year’s September action.
The Power have proved perennial bridesmaids in recent years and have never made the Grand Final in 11 years under Hinkley.
But having earned a double chance in three of the last four years, the men from Alberton have proved one of the competition’s more consistent seasons.
It’s left the 2024 season as an intriguing watch. Can Hinkley – fresh off signing a two-year contract extension – go two better as Port initiates a new era captained by Connor Rozee?
Taking a look over the club’s list, 2008 Brownlow Medalist Cooney is tipping the Power to be there about again.
“I was a believer, I have been for the last three or four seasons. I do like the way they play, they’re entertaining, I like the way they take the game on and Ken Hinkley is a very entertaining coach,” he said on SEN’s Sportsday.
“They seem to have sewed up a few of those holes in their defence during the trade period with Esava Ratugolea and Brandon Zerk-Thatcher… I think Zerk-Thatcher will be a really handy addition.
“He big one will be Ratugolea. What can he become? Can he become an All-Australian defender?
“They’ve got a strong midfield… at the other end of the ground Charlie Dixon is the issue… Georgiades is coming back from an ACL, if he can slot back in and they can get some improvement out of Ollie Lord then they should be looking to finish top four again and give themselves an opportunity.
“I’ll keep one foot in the door in Port Adelaide making a Grand Final.”
Hinkley himself expressed a similar opinion about the bolstering of his defence that could prove the difference to him breaking his Grand Final hoodoo.
Acknowledging the large load key defender Aliir Aliir played throughout 2023 in an injury and form-ravaged backline, Hinkley predicted his recent trade recruits to have a big impact.
“I think we’ve done absolutely everything we could… Jason (Cripps, list manager) has done a great job bringing in the people we needed,” Hinkley noted about the player movement period.
“We brought in two rucks who are both trying to emerge in their own rights… it was clear to us that we needed a little more size down back to help and support Aliir, we were asking him to do probably too much.
“With that in mind, we had TJ (Tom Jonas) who was retiring and coming to the end, we had an injured Trent McKenzie a fair bit throughout the season.
“We weren’t just down with a bit of size, we were down with personnel available to us so we’ve certainly made a conscious decision and we had made that decision a couple of years ago, as was clear when we tried to bring Esava to the club 12 months earlier.
“We’re really optimistic around what Esava and Brandon can bring down back.”
Port Adelaide holds a soft draw for the 2024 season and kicks off the year against bottom four fancies West Coast and Richmond.