Gold Coast SUNS assistant coach Ken Hinkley rides every match very much like the Club’s fans, celebrating the achievements and lamenting missed opportunities and failure to execute in accordance with the game plan.
The difference is that Hinkley, who excelled as a player, has the benefit of hindsight and has previously played a role in the development of young players now enjoying the spotlight as some of the best in the game.
For all the coaching, the drills and the preparation, Hinkley says, time and experience is the key ingredient required as the Gold Coast SUNS assemble their arsenal of key forwards.
Everyone in footy talks about how hard it is to develop key forwards, I was lucky enough back in 2001 when Nick Riewoldt came along when I was at St Kilda for a little bit of time and you see Nick Riewoldt turn into what he is.
"Then I was with Tommy Hawkins at Geelong and you think gee it takes a while, Tommy Hawkins is in his fifth or sixth year of football and he is now just starting to come to terms with being the power forward that he needs to be."
“It does take a long period of time for those boys, but what I do know is that the harder you work on it, the quicker you can get there.”
While injury has cost a number of the lists developing stars vital game time this season, their thirst for knowledge and hunger to develop as players and as a team continues to impress the veteran assistant.
“The thing that impresses me about any young athlete or AFL footballer is the ones who are willing to go above and beyond. Normally you go out and you do your training sessions and you do what you need to do and then there is the players who come along and they are prepared to work harder at their game and I have been lucky enough to see that first hand and we have some young key forwards capable of doing it, Tom Lynch and Sam Day and a number of those guys and your appetite for work is what will make you get there.”
While the Gold Coast SUNS have endured some painful results this season, Hinkley claims the learning’s have been essential and win lose or draw, every match played takes the club and it’s supporters closer towards a period of sustained success.
That’s what is impressive about this group, yeah the results are not exactly where we would like them to be and clearly they are a long way off, but the appetite for work and the appetite to get better is there every day they come into the Club and we will get better and we will have some success.
Team care, may seem like a new footy buzz word being trotted out by coaching staff and players at the moment, however to fully understand it’s meaning and value to the Gold Coast SUNS is to understand the systems many of the Club’s young players have come from.
“In their junior days and at their lower clubs they have been able to just attack and run after the ball because they have been the better players, what happens at this level is that they are all very good players and the first thing you have to teach young players is when to attack and when to defend.”
