‘No gratitude’: Port fans savaged for ‘nasty’ act… but ‘no surviving’ if Ken’s men miss finals

Port Adelaide fans have “no gratitude” for Ken Hinkley, according to respected commentator Gerard Whateley, but he maintains the under-fire coach will be gone if they miss the finals.

Hinkley’s disappointing Power outfit fell hopelessly to Brisbane last Saturday, representing the club’s third consecutive loss — by an average margin of 46 points — and third-straight home defeat.

Port Adelaide still has a winning record at 8-6, but it is just half a game inside the top eight as a host of hungry sides chase from below.

As he and his coaching staff exited Adelaide Oval after the Power’s 79-point loss on Saturday, Hinkley copped a barrage of boos from the crowd.

“When a crowd turns on its coach like the Port Adelaide people did, it’s just a nasty way to treat a good and loyal man,” Whateley said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.

Co-host and Herald Sun chief football journalist Robinson acknowledged the Power’s coaching failures but put the heat squarely on the Port Adelaide playing group.

“It’s ugly, we don’t see that often in football,” he said. “That’s why it’s generated such headlines around the country. We haven’t seen that for a long, long time.

“There’s an expectation you compete, and when you don’t compete to a point where you get annihilated on the ground, you get booed off and it’s like a party’s had a really ugly end — and that was what (happened on) Saturday.

“So, who takes responsibility? Is it Ken Hinkley? Is it Josh Carr in the box? Is it collectively the coaches’ box? Yes, it is.

“But the critical piece in all of it, Gerard, is the players. It always is. They decide how they want to play. They are guided by the coach, and he’s been a great guider, a great, wonderful person.

“Those players showed no respect to the 20-year anniversary premiership team, they showed no respect to each other, no respect for Ken Hinkley, and no respect for the fans.”

Robinson said it was the players who should have been booed post-game, not Hinkley.

“Ken Hinkley shouldn’t have been booed off the ground on the weekend, the players should have been booed off the ground on the weekend,” Robinson declared.

“There is a bad vibe about Kenny, there’s no mistaking it — 12 years, maybe the time is up, maybe it is. But the players must take responsibility — they must.

“(It’s a) big three weeks for the players, (but a) big three weeks, more so, for Ken Hinkley.”