Hinkley’s regret over post-match sprays, but Hawthorn legends slam ‘embarrassing’ behaviour

He was crook. We pulled him out of Freo because he was sick, he recovered and was OK, but as anyone who has any viruses in the last few years, they can come back and get you again. We’re hopeful he’ll be more than OK next week.

More on Dixon:

It is a re-occurring situation. He trained through the week but as he got through the week later he was getting worse and even said to me yesterday he was really struggling. I said let’s wait and see what happens when you get close to the game.

Will you speak to Jack [Ginnivan] and James [Sicily] after what happened?

I don’t think so because I don’t think now is the right time for me to have a conversation with anyone and I should reflect on the moment.

How much did you use Jack’s social media comment to spur the boys on during the week?

That’s probably why it got to the point it did, we as a footy club found it a little bit disrespectful. That’s why it gets to where it gets.

Is it any difference to you at your press conference, is there any difference in the line with what Jack said on social media? “See you next week”.

That was said to me walking out.

Was it flippant? The same thing Jack was saying?

I’m not sure. We as a footy club didn’t enjoy that comment. But that’s OK, everyone has the right to speak.

What did you say to Jack?

There’s no need to keep going there. It was a pretty good game of football.

Do you also regret taking a bit of a gloss off a courageous win by your club?

Yeah, I regret the comment is what I should say, and should have stayed out of that comment, but I didn’t.

Is that part of the experience, after the Saints, you are emotional and wear your heart on your sleeve?

It just goes to show everyone can get better and I’m still trying to get better.

Will you seek to speak to Ken after that? How frustrated are you to have that relayed you from a rival coach?

That’s the third question, that’s enough.

How did it feel losing the game like that?

The pain I felt, and the pain I saw in their faces was exactly, it was ... I mean, as players and coaches, but we are all as one. And it’s not just the players, like, I looked at the players, like, I looked at the players all sitting like that and all the staff around the outside and I looked at all the faces and all the red eyes, and it was pain and disappointment and frustration and regret, and pride just all staring straight back at me. It’s a brutal game and we came from a long way back at the start of the year, and if we could have got a bit better a bit quicker a bit earlier, maybe we would win that game. We gave ourselves chances, we just didn’t quite take them. Take enormous pride in the playing group. We’ve had some challenges across the whole season, but across the last few years. I think when our fans go to work on Monday, they will wear the colours and be pretty proud of what we put out there today.

I know it’s still very raw, but what are the areas you feel like you let yourself down tonight? That you lost the game in?

It was a close game. We didn’t control much of the game. They controlled a lot of the territory, centre forward, we were like minus 30 in one area of the ground for contested possessions. So we were not great in a few different areas. But I mean, the technical, tactical aspect of tonight’s game, we gave ourselves chances to win, we found a way, against odds, for the majority. A lot of the game’s on their terms.

Will you use this pain animation going forward and look back on this in the future?

It will be hard not to. I hope not! I think pain is a great motivator. Every training session, you know, when you think about running through the line or finishing your extra rep in the gym and all those things, there’s a little bit of pain that burns into you. I don’t think we were good enough to feel like we could be complacent. We are gonna have to make progress. It’s not a natural, linear progression. I’ve said all year that we are far from a finished product, and we wanted to be in winnable positions more often, and we were, we won a lot of them. But we were in a winnable position today but not quite good enough on the end. So I don’t think motivation, it hasn’t been the trouble for this group, hasn’t been an issue for this group, hasn’t been an issue for this group at all. So I imagine the pain of what I saw looking back at this post game, was a part of that.

You talked about your captain’s actions after the game, but what about his last quarter when he went into attack and had two goals and almost kicked the go-ahead goal, he was huge for you guys in that quarter.

Sic has obviously been playing for a long time, less than 100 per cent on his arm and he will go in for surgery pretty quickly, I imagine. Lots of the players stood up, whether it was Karl Amon, Josh Weddle or Wizard. There’s some young guys and some older guys, and they all were able to have an influence and be really important for us at different stages. Sic’s last quarter was excellent. Dylan Moore hit the post. So it’s all margins.

When you came together as a team, were you able to express that pride that you have in there?

I hope so. I hope I did. (sighs) I think it goes without saying I’m enormously proud. I said to them, it’s your club now. A lot of them helping us run the place and guiding, trying to show them what’s needed to be elite at this level of footy, and they know now. So it’s going to be an interesting experience for us. But we finished sixth, did we? So we are sixth, just in the top third of the ladder. So that’s where we’re at.