Wines: I want to finish my career at Port Adelaide

MIDFIELDER Ollie Wines says he wants to play out the rest of his career at Port Adelaide, with the 2021 Brownlow Medallist feeling truly valued by his coaches and teammates. 

Wines has been in top form throughout the first half of the season following an injury-hampered 2023, and is now feeling clearer than ever with his on-field role at the Power. 

The 29-year old spoke with the Adelaide media on Wednesday about his playing future, how he manages his heart condition and where the team is at following the bye. 

Wines on his future
“Yeah, look, I haven’t heard anything about it (being traded to North Melbourne). So it could be all (gossip) in the media, but I’ve got two years left at Port Adelaide. I’m a Port Adelaide person through and through and as far as I see it, I’m here for the rest of my career and that’s that. So there’s always rumours going around like that, but nothing comes from me. I love this club, and hopefully I’ll retire here.” 

Wines on the increased clarity in his role
“Yeah, at times probably last year (I wavered), but there were reasons for that. Look, my body wasn’t up to it last year coming off the surgery I had after 2022. The thing that I love about this club is how transparent Ken is and his coaches and from the start last year, I knew that was the case. And I knew that once I got my body back to where it needed to be, my role was there. So that transparency is what we love about this club.  

Wines on feeling valued at Port Adelaide
“Yeah, for sure, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I was valued. I think our coaches do a really good job at highlighting guys’ different strengths and weaknesses and putting us in positions where we will do well and help the team. So you know, I’ve got full faith in the belief of the coaches in me, as well as my teammates.” 

Wines on his heart
“Yeah, look, I’m 100 per cent fine. It’s meant a lot, a lot of people asking me how I’m going and how I’m getting through it. But look, it’s something that, fortunately, having spoken to a lot of experts and have a lot of appointments about it. And it is an isolated incident that does happen occasionally and obviously, the two times it has occurred has been in the middle of football games, where it’s sort of a little bit hard to hide away from that. So fortunately, for me, it’s not life threatening, it’s just something that affects me playing at a 100 per cent (when it happens) which, obviously, it’s going to affect me and my occupation at times. So we’ve got some contingency plans in place to get through to the end of the season, and there’s some things we can do at the end of the season to fix it. So, the main thing is it’s not life threatening, it’s something that will affect me when the stars align, and for whatever reason it happens, but it’s something that I just don’t want to happen to sort of let down the team in that moment and have to be subbed out.” 

“There’s procedures that I can have (to rectify it). Respectfully, I’m not going to go into the details of it. But there are procedures that can fix it and there’s very short recovery, they don’t involve too much. So that’s something that, once the end of the season comes, we’ll do that.”