David Koch on the hotel room meeting that put Port Adelaide on a path to becoming a contender again
They all felt they were in no-man’s land. They were sick of it. Now, club president David Koch lifts the lid on the hotel room meeting that changed Port Adelaide forever.
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The meeting that put Port Adelaide on a path to becoming a contender again happened in president David Koch’s hotel room on North Terrace in 2018.
It was Saturday, August 25, and the night before the Power lost to Essendon by 22 points at home – their fourth consecutive loss to finish the season 10th.
Joining Koch in his room after breakfast was senior coach Ken Hinkley, football manager Chris Davies and chief executive Keith Thomas, who, by their own admission, felt they were in no-man’s land and were sick of it.
The year before they’d lost to West Coast in extra time of the elimination final and while they hadn’t fallen any lower than 10th during Hinkley’s tenure, they also hadn’t won a final for four years.
“It was ‘OK, we keep saying we don’t want to be mediocre, but we have been mediocre’,” Koch says of the meeting.
“Port Adelaide supporters demand success and we have never used the term rebuild because I often think that’s a cop-out. We always want to remain competitive, which we have … inconsistent, but competitive.
“But we had to work out how do we break out of that middle tier which we call ‘the tier of death’ because you’re not a success but you can’t claim that you’re on a path to getting better, you’re just stuck there.
“We had this meeting and we had to build a different culture internally both on field and off field, and that meant looking at the make-up of the people we had and whether their values and commitment was at the level we wanted.
“And no matter who they were, if we didn’t think it was, we were going to move them on.”
The on-field overhaul had started in part the year before when they bid farewell to Jarman Impey, Jackson Trengove, Aaron Young and Brendon Ah Chee, and added free agents Tom Rockliff, Steven Motlop and Jack Watts.
But the most aggressive move was about to come and in that meeting they decided to trade two established players in their prime – Chad Wingard and Jared Polec, the latter who had been offered big money from North Melbourne anyway.
What they weren’t to know was three months later, those decisions would net them Connor Rozee, Zak Butters and Xavier Duursma in the same draft, but Koch begs to differ.
“Well, funnily enough, yes we did,” he says.
“Jason Cripps (list manager) is extraordinary and he and Geoff Parker (recruiting manager) told us two years before that that 2018 draft was a once-in-a-generation draft and we were going to load up for it.”
Port Adelaide has sat on top of the AFL ladder for the entire home-and-away season yet Koch has not seen a single game live. The president, who usually flies in and out of his home in Sydney for Power games, is now no different to thousands of other footy fans around the country who are locked out because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s been flamin’ annoying, but it is what it is and when you get annoyed you then think of what this has done to everyone’s lives,” he says. “And if it’s meant you haven’t been able to go to the footy then I think I’ve come out of it pretty lucky. To see the competition played, and at the very least on TV, we are a lot more fortunate than a lot of others.
“I have a five-month-old granddaughter in Perth who I haven’t seen yet, so that’s just as big a priority for Lib (wife Libby) and I to see this little girl and our two other grandkids in Perth.”
For most games this season Koch has surrounded himself by family to watch the Power on TV.
“I have two adult kids in Sydney and three grandkids so we usually congregate at my daughter’s house with them because they’re all mad Port supporters too,” he says.
“We have the banners and flags up and wear our guernseys, and, funny enough, my son’s new next-door neighbour is a mad Port supporter and member. So they started watching it together and he said, ‘Do you want to come to my sister’s place to watch the footy?’ so she turned up with this mad household of Port Adelaide supporters and has almost become part of the family, too.
“And Lib and I were at church the other day and this retired minister came up to us and said, ‘I’m a third generation Port supporter’ and we got into a huge discussion on the young kids, how well Boaky is going, Robbie. in times like this it reminds you just how powerful the gel of football is to communities and people’s lives.”
It’s somewhat ironic that Koch has been locked out of Port Adelaide’s games all year, considering the external criticism of his appointment in 2012 was he would be an absent president living in Sydney – about as far away from the club’s working class 5015 postcode as possible.
Koch had been the club’s joint No 1 ticket holder since 1997 when he joined the board and replaced Brett Duncanson as president, but his modus operandi from the start was to grow the Port Adelaide brand nationally, and even internationally, which they have in China.
“Just because someone moves out of the Port Adelaide district doesn’t mean they don’t like the club anymore or have lost connection,” he says.
“With technology now and particularly during COVID, I join the senior executive meeting by Zoom every Tuesday at 10am. I have a Monday night session with Kenny where we just chat – and often not about football, just how he’s going, how I’m going, the broader things the club’s doing – and later in the week with Chris Davies, our head of football.
“And what this has all reinforced to me is the depth of executives and football (IQ) is really solid at Port Adelaide and they have coped amazingly well with what’s going on.”
From the outside at least, Koch’s relationship with Hinkley has seemed an interesting one. Despite his assurances the board was happy with Hinkley at the helm last year, Koch put everyone on notice by declaring a finals-or-nothing benchmark. That was interpreted by some as an ultimatum to Hinkley, who himself revealed the Power had to make finals in 2020 to automatically trigger the final year on his contract in 2021.
Port did miss the finals in 2019 but the day after their final game Thomas put any speculation over Hinkley’s future to bed by declaring he would coach them in 2020 and hopefully to their next flag.
“I’ve always said in terms of how I rate our year at Port Adelaide, a pass mark is getting into the finals, and you shouldn’t be in the game if you’re happy to not be in the finals,” Koch says.
“Gerard Whateley said to me, ‘You got a bit wobbly last year’ as far as Ken’s future was concerned and I said, ‘No, not at all’. Lots of people thought I was wobbly because I’d said a pass mark was finals.
“And (the details of) Ken’s contract was something that he had revealed, (people thought) there was a trigger to get rid of him if we didn’t make finals. Well, no, there was a trigger that we would assess his position at the time if we didn’t make finals.
“There’s got to be a performance incentive for everything, like ratings for breakfast television or whatever if you’re in a competitive environment.
“I was never wobbly because I knew Ken signed on for this and helped drive this change in culture, and it wasn’t going to be an overnight success.
“Everyone thinks they know Ken. I don’t think they really do. He is a really value-driven bloke and he said, ‘This is the best thing maybe not for the short-term but the next five or six years’.
“Even if we hadn’t made finals this year – and it’s easy for me to say now in hindsight – but this year I’d never really thought about ending it if we didn’t make finals and pull the trigger on Ken.
“We are on the right track. He forewent short-term performance to build us a squad that we’ve got now and are confident with for the next two or three years.”
Koch has always been forthright during his presidency and while never backing away from his public comments, there is one moment he regrets.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2017 elimination final against West Coast, which the Power lost after the siren in extra time, he fronted supporters at a post-match function and declared if players weren’t there to win a premiership then Port didn’t want them. As if they weren’t already hurting enough.
“I can be a bit too blunt sometimes, and I made a comment that at the time after a stinging loss, was probably too blunt,” he says. “If there’s one thing I regret it is probably that one.”
But while it maybe hard to hear at the time, that comment set the tone for that hotel meeting 12 months later and also for what he said to Rozee, Butters and Duursma on the night they were drafted.
“We had a function for their parents and families at the end of the draft; we had a drink with them all immediately after,” Koch says. “And I said, ‘Just understand the history of this club, and if today is your dream come true to get drafted to a club, then you’re probably not the right person for us. If your dream is that this is the first step to winning a grand final, then you’re our sort of player’. It’s those who embrace it that we love.”
Under the current guard, Port Adelaide has had a remarkable record of player retention. There’s got to be a reason other than money why Travis Boak and Robbie Gray have never entertained the thought of returning to Victoria, even when their club was under-resourced and non-competitive.
But the pin-up boy for what the culture at Port Adelaide has become is surely Charlie Dixon. He recently admitted that his plan in 2015 when he signed a five-year deal with the Power from Gold Coast was to see it out and head straight home, but when the time came to weigh up an offer from premiership contender Brisbane, he just couldn’t bare the thought of leaving Port Adelaide.
“We’ve been pretty good at keeping players we want to keep over the years,” Koch says. “I think that’s a real reflection of Ken, Chris Davies, Chad Cornes, that whole football department is very much Port Adelaide driven.
“Charlie’s screamer one-handed (in Round 17) you look at that and say, ‘Bloody hell that was extraordinary’ but before the game you see his routine with Chad throwing balls at him one-handed, that just reflects that football department.
“And look at the impact Boaky has had on Charlie in the off-season, after two really emotional, injury-ridden years and the shape he came back in and the mental shape was just amazing.
“Boaky can’t go overseas this off-season but he’s already organising a private pre-season camp with a few of the players and I don’t think he can find a house big enough. I think he’s organising a Red Bull surfing coach. which just changes the routine for them.
“And Pepp (Sam Powell-Pepper) – his professionalism, the way he presents himself, that’s living with Trav, and the way Robbie has taken Connor and Zak Butters under his wing. It’s one of the things you don’t get to see at a game as much but you notice more on TV from a distance, that body language between the players; they’re having fun and supporting each other.”
When Koch took on the job at Port Adelaide he never put a shelf-life on his presidency.
“I wanted to get the job done, and for me the job done is a premiership,” he says.
“My first job was to make sure we were financially sustainable, and in my first couple of months I was asked (by a journalist), ‘You really lost $7m didn’t you?’ and I’d included the extra grants from the SANFL and AFL because $7m was too depressing and kept saying, ‘No it’s only $2m’ but it was really $7m. We were well under, millions under, the soft cap, and it was for us to build a financially sustainable model that the football department would not want for anything in terms of resources and we managed to do that.
“You have to be able to afford the resources and we’re not a glamour club, we don’t have thousands of poker machines like some of the Melbourne clubs, but we’re financially solid and sustainable going forward. I’ve always been a believer that allows you to get good people, the right people.”
Then there’s been the membership growth at Port Adelaide, from under 30,000 in 2012 to 54,000 in 2018 and is expected to nudge 50,000 despite the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“Really, really proud, because we know what this environment is doing for our people,” Koch says.
“Even the AFL and ACCC, because they looked at every AFL club, we were the easiest to get a (membership) refund from. We didn’t hide it away in the fine print at the bottom of emails. It was very much, ‘If you’re doing it tough, we understand and these are the options, and if you need your money back it’s this easy’.
“And I think that goodwill has come back to us in terms of merchandise. We are writing record amounts of merchandise … the prison bar jumper is the highest selling guernsey of any AFL guernsey in the country this year’. That shows the history of the club and the passion of our supporters, who quite rightly demand success and we can’t be frightened of that.”
Koch and Hinkley might be staying on in 2021 but chief executive Thomas will not. Having announced his intention to resign this season, he will, as promised, step down at the end of October and the Power is well advanced in finding his replacement.
“The end of October, which was always when he said he wanted to leave,” Koch says. “We’re incredibly grateful that he gave us that amount of time to transition and we’re in the final process. We will make an announcement on it soon after the season.
“At the moment we only have one focus and absolutely no distractions.”
There is speculation that executive general manager Matthew Richardson will be elevated as either a direct replacement or part of a succession plan.
“I don’t want to comment on any individual except to say we have enormous depth in our executive team at the club. We are really lucky,” Koch says. “It’s a testament to them, and to Keith and his recruiting over the years, and the AFL has realised they’re a good bunch running that club.”
As for his own future, Koch has no plans on when he will step down but knows who will take over when he does.
“Lib keeps asking me this,” he says. “If anything, a season without travel has calmed her down a bit, but I think we’re building something special and I want to be part of that. I want the ultimate success like anyone else. I’ve always had a succession plan (in my mind). You look at the diversity of our directors and it’s something I’ve put a lot of effort into, that in my own mind there is a very clear succession plan.
“There’s no (timeline), I always say with Sunrise, viewers will let me know, and I think members will let me know. I’m still enjoying it, I think we’ve achieved a lot and we still have a lot of achievement to go in the next couple of years.”
KOCHIE ON ...
The 150th celebratory year ...
“If there’s a silver lining to this (year) that we got to hold our dinner at the start of the season, it is it.
“I’m thinking if they can delay the Olympics, next year we might too, ‘150 plus 1’, or ‘the start of the next 150’.
“We didn’t get to play in our hoops guernsey on the actual birthday (of the club), we had so much planned, and in the overall scheme of things we got off pretty lightly compared with what other people have had to go through but I just want to celebrate the 150th as we should have.
“If we can go deep into October, and who would have ever thought we’d be saying that, but that would be a great celebration.”
China ....
“We’ve always said it didn’t depend on a game up there.
“Frankly the game did happen by accident, (then Prime Minister) Malcolm Turnbull launched our program up there and off the cuff said ‘and I’ll look forward to the first game being played here next year’, and that completely came out of the blue.
“Gil (McLachlan) to this day accuses me of wording Malcolm Turnbull up but I didn’t, it was just cross wires, but we quite like being an international team.
“We still have somebody based in Shanghai, still building enormous bridges with Chinese companies who do business in Australia and enabling them to become part of the community by being associated with us, that doesn’t change.
“The game in the current climate may not happen for a while but we’ve also been asked to look at playing a game in other countries so that’s exciting we’ve built a blueprint or a process of doing it that we are quite comfortable with.
“It makes us different, it gives us commercially a uniqueness which is good.”
An AFLW team ...
“We will not let go of our grass roots women’s footy which is our community women’s football which we’ve been very much involved with the last two years, and always have the ambition to have a women’s team.
“Frankly the AFL hasn’t addressed it with us on room for expansion in the future and whether that’s going to be delayed (because of Covid) but we would certainly want to fit in with their plans.
“We would love first of all to have an AFLW team in the SANFL comp and be invited to do that which we’re annoyed we weren’t. And making sure the Magpies come back bigger and better next year in the SANFL too.
“If there are smaller (AFL) list sizes that would not stop us being the Magpies, but the SANFL have got to come to the party and make it a level playing field (ability to recruit) on the same basis as the other clubs.
“They have to be flexible with that and love us or hate us, I think South Australian football is the better for having a Magpies in the SANFL and that history.”
More job cuts at Port Adelaide ...
“We went pretty early to give people some certainty.
“But we’re about where we should be at the moment, there might be one or two people who leave because they have other opportunities.
“Like every other AFL club we will be a slimmed down organisation, back to your core, for a year or two and there might be one or two people who quite rightly get an opportunity elsewhere and that’s fine.
“But in terms of forced redundancies we’re pretty well where we are.”