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Hawthorn captain James Sicily says his fiery response in a heated verbal exchange with Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley after the Hawks’ thrilling semi final loss is ‘something I pride myself on’.
Hinkley’s war of words with Sicily made for a tense postscript to the Power’s three-point win, with the coach gesturing at Hawks players and miming an aeroplane with his arms, before giving the players a spray.
Hinkley confirmed in the Power rooms that the tirade was directed at young Hawk Jack Ginnivan, who divided opinion earlier in the week with a cheeky ‘see you in two weeks’ comment on Sydney ruckman and former Collingwood teammate Brodie Grundy’s Instagram, hinting that the Hawks would defeat Port in their final.
The exchange saw Sicily aggressively come to his teammates’ defence, furiously responding to Hinkley’s taunts as things got tense at the Adelaide Oval.
The AFL have revealed they have issued Hinkley with a ‘please explain’ over the incident.
Speaking on Saturday morning, Sicily defended his conduct, though expressed his regret at overshadowing a celebratory moment for teammate Breust.
“He [Hinkley] was talking to our players and said something to ‘Ginni’,” Sicily said at Adelaide Airport.
“I think what I do as a leader is I always have my teammates’ back and I will stick up for them regardless of who is in the right or the wrong. It’s something I pride myself on and I don’t regret it one bit, really.
“The only thing that I do wish I had my time again with was that exchange probably lingered too long and took the gloss off Punky’s [Breust] 300th and not being able to be fully present in chairing him off and acknowledging the contribution he has made to the game and our club, and obviously being a great mate as well,” he said.
“That’s probably the only thing I am disappointed in, that I wasn’t fully present in that moment.
“But yeah, it’s not the first time that Ken has done that, and it won’t be the last. It’s an emotional game and sometimes it gets the better of us.”
Sicily also revealed Ginnivan had expressed regret over the Instagram post that sparked the drama earlier in the week.
“Jack openly admitted during the week to the leaders that he really wished he didn’t do it. That’s all part of the learning,” he said.
A series of Hawks greats including Luke Hodge, Dermott Brereton and Jordan Lewis have led the charge against Hinkley’s conduct.
“I thought it was dreadful. Be a humble loser and a gracious winner. You cannot be a leader of 40 men and act like that,” Brereton said on SEN.
Speaking on Channel 7 and Fox Footy respectively on Friday night, four-time premiership players Hodge and Lewis were aghast at Hinkley’s behaviour.
“As a coach, that’s pretty disappointing,” Hodge said.
“I reckon Ken as a coach would sit back and go ‘we’ve just had a great win, we should be talking about how our team we played’. Instead the coach is mouthing off to the opposition side. Pretty poor form.”
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Hodge later added that Hinkley’s comments had taken the gloss off a great Power win, with his club now seen as ‘poor sports’.
“You use it as motivation to build the blokes up to say if he gets near the ball, you go and get him,” the four-time Hawks premiership player said.
“But as soon as you win and the siren goes, the game is over.
“He is a 60-year old man. Act your age. You don’t go and start stuff like that because then, after all the football that Port played, they were sensational tonight, we’re coming out talking about them being poor sports, by saying that to a team that’s just finished their season.”
Lewis described the Power coach’s conduct as ’embarrassing’, saying the spray was disrespectful to former teammate Breust.
“He doesn’t need to do that – I think it ruins a good night, to be honest. What’s the point?” he said.
“It’s ruined your night!” former Collingwood coach and co-panellist Nathan Buckley quipped.
“Surely as a coach you understand where the line is,” Lewis continued.
“I thought it was embarrassing.
“The where he did it and how we did it – you understand Luke Breust was coming off, there was going to be a guard of honour recognising a champion of the game after 300 games – I don’t think there was anything to gain.
“If he wanted to have a bit of playing during the week, well say it then. I don’t think you gain anything saying it after the game and to think it’s not going to get talked about. I think it’s embarrassing from Ken’s point of view.”
However, Lewis’ Fox Footy co-panellist Jonathan Brown defended Hinkley, saying Ginnivan and the Hawks’ brash behaviour throughout the season had caused them to be hit by ‘the karma bus’.
“It’s a great leveller, this game,” Brown said.
“Kenny would have used every bit of that [Ginnivan’s Instagram comment]. He definitely would have used it as motivation.”
Speaking after the match, a clearly incensed Sam Mitchell praised Sicily’s conduct in standing up for Ginnivan, taking a thinly veiled swipe at Hinkley’s ‘very aggressive words’.
“If I think about how my club, the Hawthorn Football Club, dealt with the post-game – we have a very young player who was having some very aggressive words said to him by a much older man, who’s been in the game for a long time. And the captain of my club stood up for him,” Mitchell said.
“It’s really tough to sit here right now, getting rushed by the AFL to make sure you’re at your press conference on time, so I understand the emotions of this time of year are really, really difficult. I’m really, really proud of our captain who would’ve been just as emotional [as Hinkley], who was able to stand up and lead in a way that he could be proud of.”
When asked by Channel 7 reporter Mitch Cleary whether he would seek to make contact with Hinkley to discuss the incident, Mitchell bluntly responded ‘absolutely not’, before refusing to answer a third question about it.
“That’s the third question, that’s enough,” he said.
Speaking first on Seven’s Roaming Brian and then in his post-match press conference, Hinkley admitted he may have gone over the top with the spray, but
“Jack said what he said through the week, and I just told him after the game he wasn’t going anywhere,” Hinkley told Brian Taylor.
“I don’t know social media, I just do what I do. I probably shouldn’t have done it.
“I should apologise to the [Hawthorn] 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 later described the post-match run-in as ‘a moment I shouldn’t have had’.
“It was an emotional game and a big result. There was stuff said during last week I certainly didn’t enjoy, but I shouldn’t have let that moment get to me,” he said.
“We as a footy club found it [Ginnivan’s Instagram comment] a little bit disrespectful. That’s why it gets to where it gets.
“It just goes to show everyone can get better and I’m still trying to get better.”
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