Port's young talent excites Hinkley

Port's top draft pick, Oliver Wines, centre, hits the track at pre-season training alongside Brad Ebert. Picture: Sarah Reed Source: adelaidenow

NEW coach Ken Hinkley has hailed the quality of Port Adelaide's kids, saying "it is a point people have perhaps missed a little bit".

Buoyed by the drafting of midfield hardnut Ollie Wines and key position players Tom Clurey, below, and Mason Shaw, Hinkley said he is pleased with the club's growing talent base.

"We are excited to be honest," he said.

"It's easy for me to say because we've just gone through the draft and got those three boys in and we've got an opportunity to bring some more in (in the pre-season and rookie drafts).

"But it's a pretty exciting place, when you think about the talent that we've brought in to put alongside the talent that is already here. I think that's the point people have perhaps missed a little bit, that there's some really exciting young players at this club.

"We're really bullish about what they've got. Now we've got to train hard, work hard and improve every day to give that talent a chance to come out to play good AFL footy."

Port Adelaide, which has missed the finals for five consecutive years, has assembled a talented array of top draft picks.

Injuries have curtailed the development of first-round picks John Butcher, Hamish Hartlett, Andrew Moore, Jasper Pittard and Matthew Lobbe, prompting the Power to change fitness coaches from Cam Falloon to Darren Burgess.

But Hinkley believes, given good training, it is only a matter of time before its best kids shine on the national stage.

And he refused to put a ceiling on what the club could achieve next year.

"You just don't know," Hinkley said.

"We've got some live examples just in the past 12 months of how quickly some improvement can come and how other things can turn the other way on you. Injuries, all those things, are a massive factor in AFL football.

"All I can rate our players on at the moment is effort and their intensity to train, which has been really, really good.

"It's been first class and I have given them a big tick, the boys, and I'll support them all day long as far as that goes because they are a group right now who are desperate to improve - you can see that."

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