David Koch says that Ken Hinkley is the right coach to take Port Adelaide to the next level, despite having their finals hopes crushed on the weekend.
The chairman, who by his own admission has had a challenging relationship with Hinkley in previous years, said the club’s disappointing season would not be solely blamed on the coach.
Replay
“I can absolutely say there is no question about the future of Ken Hinkley whatsoever," Koch told 5AA radio on Monday.
"I think Ken is the best coach for the Port Adelaide Football Club.
"At 11-4, Ken was seen as a superhero. Then everyone changes their mind so quickly. That is the brutality of the AFL at the moment, it is such a finely-tuned competition.”
After an off-season in which Port Adelaide recruited three big names – Jack Watts, Steven Motlop and Tom Rockliff – the team went into 2018 with high expectations, both internally and externally.
But Port will now miss the finals, unless miraculous results go their way, including Geelong losing to Gold Coast at home on Saturday.
Koch admits that the thought of not being part of September is disappointing.
"Ollie Wines put it right when he said he's a little embarrassed by the past six weeks … we have all had a tough period," Koch said.
"I just remind people of the cycles that clubs go through in terms of just trying to find the magic of a successful season.
"It boils down to a lot of situations … you have got to battle through that and believe in yourself.
"That's not to say you bury your head in the sand … you have got to be ruthless to be elite.
"Don't think that the entire club … don't think that they're not disappointed with the last six weeks and feel the pain of every member."
Port have lost five of their last six games, with the only victory coming in round 19 against the Western Bulldogs.
The nine-point loss to Fremantle, the Josh Jenkins score review fiasco against the Crows and the Jeremy McGovern goal after the siren against West Coast ultimately cost them their spot in the finals.
After re-signing main priority and future captain Wines, Port will now look at the Jared Polec situation, with the running defender weighing up a huge offer from North Melbourne.
North’s offer, which is over $700,000 a season for five years, is substantially higher than the offer to stay at Port.
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