Ken Hinkley, the former head coach of Port Adelaide, received a $20,000 fine from the AFL in 2024 due to his behavior following the team’s semifinal victory over Hawthorn.<\/p>\n
The AFL later leveraged Hinkley\u2019s actions from that incident to advertise the anticipated rematch between the two teams during the Gather Round in 2025.<\/p>\n
Hinkley expressed feelings of being taken advantage of by the league, particularly after they used the footage of his post-match conduct for promotional purposes while also imposing a significant penalty on him.<\/p>\n
During an interview with SEN radio, Hinkley described the experience as one that left him feeling “shamed” and exploited, highlighting the discomfort he felt regarding the AFL’s handling of the situation.<\/p>\n
The fine was issued for what the AFL deemed conduct unbecoming after Hinkley engaged in verbal exchanges with Hawthorn players and made an airplane gesture directed at Jack Ginnivan as the players departed the Adelaide Oval following the Power’s narrow three-point victory.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the incident, Hinkley acknowledged his wrongdoing, stating, “I made the mistake, I did the crime… and I owned that and talked about that quite openly straight afterwards and was embarrassed by my own behavior.” However, he was critical of the AFL for using the incident to promote the upcoming Gather Round event, suggesting it felt somewhat contradictory to their moral stance regarding his actions.<\/p>\n
Hinkley speculated that the fine might have been influenced by his history with the league during his 13-year tenure as Port Adelaide’s coach, which concluded at the end of the previous season. He remarked, “They [the AFL] had every right to do what they did… I just felt like there was a little bit extra in it for some reason.” He added, “I probably caused them some problems over the journey in different ways, but maybe this was their chance to clip me properly, I don’t know.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ken Hinkley, the former head coach of Port Adelaide, received a $20,000 fine from the AFL in 2024 due to his behavior following the team’s semifinal victory over Hawthorn. The AFL later leveraged Hinkley\u2019s actions from that incident to advertise the anticipated rematch between the two teams during the Gather Round in 2025. Hinkley expressed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[590,43,591,583],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-au-afl","category-australia","category-au-australian-rules-football","category-au-sport"],"yoast_head":"\n