Sam Mitchell drops hint about ‘context’ behind Hawthorn’s angry response to Ken Hinkley

Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell says his anger towards Ken Hinkley following their semi-final defeat wasn’t just because of the coach’s ugly war-of-words with his Hawks players but also due to another incident that happened when the sides met earlier this year. In round 10 the Hawks led for the entire game before Port slotted home a goal in the dying seconds to clinch a monumental one-point win.

As the siren sounded, cheers erupted from Port fans and players and Hinkley celebrated wildly on the touchline screaming and punching the air as he faced the coaches boxes, where Mitchell sat. Hinkley then carried on again following the Power’s finals win over the Hawks by rubbing salt into the wounds of Jack Ginnivan and leaving Mitchell livid. Hinkley apologised in his press conference straight after the game for his on-field clash with Ginnivan and Hawthorn captain James Sicily – who stood up for his teammate – after the coach mocked the Hawks after a tumultuous build-up to the clash all week.

Hinkley said “You’re not flying, Jack”, in reference to Ginnivan’s social media post that caused uproar in the lead-up to the game. Ginnivan faced backlash for a cocky reply to a post from Swans star Brodie Grundy that said: “See u in 14 days”, suggesting the Hawks would easily sweep past the Power and play Sydney in the preliminary final.

Mitchell hit out at Hinkley post-match saying: “I mean, I can only speak on my club’s behalf. And if I think about how my club, the Hawthorn football club, dealt with the post-game, we had a very young player (Jack Ginnivan), having had some very aggressive words said to him by a much older man, who has been in the game for a long time.

“The captain of my club (James Sicily), stood up for him (Ginnivan). I understand the emotions of this time of year are really, really difficult. I’m really proud of our captain, who would have been just as emotional, who was able to stand up and lead in a way that he could be proud of.”

Sam Mitchell believes he didn’t overreact to Ken Hinkley debacle

Since then much has been made of Hinkley’s actions and Mitchell’s comments. When pressed by Kane Cornes on the incident on SEN on Friday, Mitchell dismissed Cornes’ take that he had overreacted, stating that it was a build-up from what started way back in Round 10.

“I don’t think so,” Mitchell said in response to Cornes asking if he felt looking back he overreacted. “I think there was some context there and some things that happened last time we played where there was something similar. As soon as the game had finished when we lost in the last minute.” In the round 10 encounter, Port Adelaide trailed for the entire match before a miracle Darcy Byrne-Jones goal in the dying seconds capped off a massive comeback win.

Port players, staff and fans wildly celebrated the 11.14 (80) to 12.7 (79) win as Hinkley yelled and punched the air on the sideline and gestured to the coaches box. And Mitchell felt on that occasion Hinkley and his side went overboard. When Cornes pressed further on what exactly transpired the Hawks coach chose not to elaborate further.

“I don’t think we need to give any extra legs to this sort of thing. I think the thing Hawthorn need to do as a club is we got what we deserved this year,” he said. “I know it is an interesting story but that’s certainly not going to be the focus of our review of that game.

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