Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley is still confident Ollie Wines will re-sign with the club, but he’s not getting in his star midfielder’s face about it.
“I leave him alone, it’s his choice,” Hinkley told Fox Footy. “Players have the opportunity to see what the market is and they’ve got to set themselves up, I understand that,” Hinkley said.
“As a coach you know your players really well, I think I know Ollie incredibly well personally.
“I think he’s committed to the group and you can just see, he’s great mates with some young players at the club and looks like he’s on a path to becoming captain of the football club, his family are committed to our footy team.
“You talk about the culture of a football club, I just feel like Ollie is not going to be leaving the Port Adelaide Football Club — as I’ve said a few times ‘I’m 100 per cent certain he will stay’ and I hope I’m not proven wrong.
“I talked about Ollie’s connection to his teammates. I can’t get any closer to this group than I am to the players and to leave them would have been incredibly difficult to do.
“But we do stick together as a club, we’ve been able to build a culture and a development program that helps players become better and they want to stay.
“And I think that gives us a great opportunity for success in the future.”
