Blight lights the path for Hinkley

Ken Hinkley, right, with Malcolm Blight and Peter Jonas, left, during their stint at St Kilda. Picture: Craig Borrow. Source: Herald Sun

KEN Hinkley openly admits he is a disciple of dual Crows premiership coach Malcolm Blight.

Like Blight, he hates losing and is soft on the outside with a tough underbelly.

"I played my best football under Blighty and had my best time as a player working under him," said Hinkley, who made two All-Australian teams playing under Blight at Geelong in 1991-92.

"He encouraged the best from a lot of people and gave me confidence to play the game, so I'm certainly converted to the Malcolm Blight side of things."

Hinkley - who interviewed but missed out on the head coaching jobs at Richmond, Geelong and St Kilda - said Blight had taught him to "give players freedom to play".

"It was about taking the game on inside some guidelines and then seeing how far they could go," he said.

"But over the journey I think Blighty also has learnt that you needed to have some pretty solid defence about your team too.

"If you can combine a bit of both I think you'll get a pretty good recipe."

A strong family person, Hinkley is renowned as a great teacher, having nurtured many Geelong premiership players including Gary Ablett, Jimmy Bartel, Steve Johnson, Paul Chapman and Andrew Mackie.

Ablett, now captain of Gold Coast, describes him as a "close confidante".

"He's just got a really good handle of the game," Blight said.

"He has a very astute football brain and he gets on very well with each player, he has a really nice way about him."

Mackie said he loved working with Hinkley.

"He has one of the smartest footy brains that I know," he said.

"He's a bloke just with a desire to win. I think Port needs that and a brand footy fans want to go see."

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