An emotional Ken Hinkley has gone public with feelings he was “shamed” by the AFL over his post-game incident with Hawthorn players.
The veteran coach has previously spoken about the spiteful night where he made an aeroplane gesture towards Hawthorn star Jack Ginnivan — but not like this.
His gesture came after he took offence to an Instagram post from Ginnivan, which implied Hawthorn would make short work of Port Adelaide in a semi-final and fly to Sydney to take on the Swans the following week during the 2024 AFL Finals Series.
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Hinkley made a public apology and was fined $20,000 by the league.
“The AFL decided to impose a fine on me and shame me, and I was pretty unforgiving of that to be honest,” Hinkley said on SEN on Wednesday morning.
“I just didn’t think there was an enormous amount of care in their way of treating me through that journey.
“Then we were coming up against Hawthorn in a game that was the headline act of Gather Round. Yeah, we used it to make sure that we gave ourselves a chance.”
The AFL last year used the incident in promotional material to promote the 2025 Gather Round showdown between the two clubs.
At the time, Hawks captain James Sicily had to be held back by teammates amid tense scenes and Hinkley conceded there was a “healthy rivalry” between the outfits.
The AFL poured fuel on the fire by putting the clash at Adelaide Oval on Sunday night as a fitting close to Gather Round.
When asked if he felt used by the AFL, Hinkley responded to Gerard Whateley by saying: “Yeah, I did, there is no doubt I did.
“I can say that now because I am out of the game and I can be a little bit more honest and say that it did feel like (I was exploited).
“I made the mistake. I did the crime, which was OK. I owed that … and was embarrassed by my own behaviour.
“I made the mistake, I done (sic) the crime … and I owned that and talked about that quite openly straight afterwards and was embarrassed by my own behaviour,” he said.
“But then to promote it on their website, leading into Gather Round with me and Hawthorn and Ginni (Ginnivan) – who luckily enough, he took it in the right way – it felt a little bit misused if you’re making a moral stand on what I should and shouldn’t be allowed to do. That’s just the way I felt.”
Hinkley hypothesised there may have been more to the AFL’s decision to impose such a significant fine on him.
“There was an incident the week before with Jason McCartney and Tommy Papley where there was a bit of physical pushing and shoving,” he said further.
“I suppose they were in the mood for stamping out any behaviour post games or breaks that involved the two opposing sides in any way, shape or form.
“They have every right to do what they did. I just felt like there was a little extra in it for some reason. I probably occasionally had caused him some problems over the journey in different ways but maybe this is their chance to clip me properly, I don’t know.”
He said he was “hurt” by how he was treated.
Hinkley has been widely applauded for making a popular transition to the footy media landscape through his commentary on Fox Footy.
