Furious scenes as Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley mouths off at Hawthorn players: ‘Act your age’

Under-fire coach Ken Hinkley admits he “regrets” launching a verbal tirade at Hawthorn — and in particular Jack Ginnivan — after Port Adelaide stayed alive in the AFL finals by the skin of their teeth.

Hawks captain James Sicily hit the post in the last minute and the Power held on to set up a preliminary final against Sydney next week. But in the midst of the celebrations Hinkley was spotted angrily mouthing off at Hawthorn players.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Hinkley mouths off at Hawks players as Sicily held back by teammate.

Hinkley, whose job may have been saved by the win, had appeared cordial with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell in the immediate aftermath but was less so towards the players.

Replays showed the 57-year-old Hinkley directed a plane gesture at Hawthorn, with Sicily furious and needed to be briefly held back by a teammate.

Sicily did not even put the drama to one side while chairing off Breust, continuing to spray Hinkley while the Port cohort — including Hinkley — applauded Hawthorn’s milestone man.

Hinkley turned his back on Hawthorn at the earliest opportunity.

“As a coach that’s pretty disappointing. I reckon Ken as a coach would sit back and go ‘we’ve had a win, a great win, you should be talking about how well our team’s played’,” Luke Hodge said on Channel 7.

“Instead a coach is in there mouthing off to a losing side. Pretty poor form.”

Hinkley later revealed he was targeting outspoken forward Ginnivan.

Ginnivan offered the perfect motivation to Port when he sent an Instagram comment to ex-Collingwood teammate Brodie Grundy, now at Sydney, declaring “see you in 14 days” in reference to a potential preliminary final against the Swans.

“Look, I’ll be honest, Jack said what he said through the week, and I just told him after the game he wasn’t going anywhere,” Hinkley told Channel 7.

“And you know what, I don’t know social media, I just do what I do. I probably shouldn’t have done it.

“I should apologise to the boys, I shouldn’t have probably done it, but the reality was, you throw something our way, we’re going to throw something back occasionally.”

Hinkley opened his press conference with a similar remark, saying he “regrets” the tirade — while choosing not to reveal exactly what else he said — despite admitting he felt Ginnivan’s post was “disrespectful”.

“You use it as motivation to build a bloke up ... as soon as you win, as soon as the siren goes, the game is over,” Hodge said on Channel 7’s coverage.

“He’s a 60-year-old (sic) man. Act your age.

“Because then after all the football that Port played, they were sensational tonight, we’re talking about poor sports by saying stuff like that to a team that’s just finished their season.”

Asked in his press conference whether he would seek out Hinkley, Mitchell was blunt: “Absolutely not.”

Mitchell largely bit his tongue as he described his perspective.

“I can only speak on my club’s behalf. I think about how my club dealt with the post-game,” he began.

“We had a very young player who was having had some very aggressive words said to him by a much older man who’s been in the game for a very long time. And the captain of my club stood up for him.

“And so I think in a really tough to sit here right now — getting rushed by the AFL, ‘make sure you’re at your press conference on time’ — I understand the emotions at this time of year are really, really difficult.

“And I’m really proud of our captain, who would’ve been just as emotional, who was able to stand up and lead in a way that he could be proud of.”

The AFL could issue Hinkley with a ‘please explain’ but Hodge, despite his strong criticism, said the press conference should close the matter.

“He realised he crossed the line and apologised, you can’t do much more than that,” he said.

“Everything he said was honest.”

Port poked fun at Ginnivan and the Hawks twice after the Hinkley drama unfolded.

One tweet looked ahead to their clash with the Swans with the caption “see u in 7 days”.

Another was a selfie — Hawthorn’s trademark celebration after wins this year.

Port Adelaide’s Brownlow medallist Ollie Wines also confirmed Ginnivan’s post was plastered around Alberton in the lead-up to the game.

“There was a bit going on during the week with Ginnivan,” Wines told Triple M.

“We’re a bit of an old-fashioned footy club so that stuff sort of gets put on the whiteboard early in the week.”

The tense scenes on the field took place just as Port captain Connor Rozee defended Hinkley over the recent focus on his future.

“I love him like a father, to be honest,” he said.

“He just cops a ridiculous amount of criticism that he probably doesn’t deserve.”