Has Port Adelaide hit an accidental ace in board room as it prepares to replace David Koch?
Succession plans do not always go to plan in the AFL, but there might be one unfolding at Port Adelaide even though Power president David Koch probably did not intend it this way.
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Port Adelaide president David Koch made one significant change at Alberton during the summer to strengthen the board room’s understanding of the demands in elite sport. Enter: Darren Cahill, world-class tennis player and coach.
“To have someone with Darren’s resume in professional world sport joining our board,” said Koch, “particularly from a high-performance and athletic development, is a massive coup for our club.”
Unwittingly, Koch — as every good leader at an AFL club should — also has set up a succession plan that could be ideal for the Port Adelaide Football Club at the end of its 150th anniversary season next year.
Season 2020 will mark Koch’s eighth year in answering the AFL’s call to salvage the basket case that was Port Adelaide at the end of 2012. If he was at West Coast, Koch would by the club’s constitution be forced to stand down after seven years, eight in extraordinary circumstances (and a club’s 150th party fits this bill).
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At West Lakes, Rob Chapman is in his 11th year as chairman and 13th on the board. His succession plan was derailed by the death of fellow director Bob Foord after the 2017 AFL grand final. Despite claims on Adelaide radio that Chapman is to stand down at the end of the season, he insists he will be in charge of the Crows next year.
And there is increasingly speculation that Chapman has found his successor, a chief executive based in Melbourne. In his current board room at West Lakes, Chapman has no obvious successor — Brownlow Medallist Mark Ricciuto has disqualified himself; vice-chairman, Jim Hazel, who is the most qualified for the role, is seeking his exit.
But back to Alberton.
Port Adelaide’s now seemingly clear path to September’s top-eight finals should take the heat off coach Ken Hinkley and, by extension, the pressure from chief executive Keith Thomas.
The Power can enter Season 2020 with that Koch-Thomas-Hinkley partnership intact, even if no-one is quite as convinced as in the past that the bond between these three key pillars at Alberton is strong.
Thomas is not short of men sizing up his seat. Hinkley is on contract to the end of Season 2021. Koch might be the first to move on.
Cahill is a fascinating option — a timely one — to advance to the presidency. He has that calm, reassuring personality that needs to follow Koch. He has international profile when the Port Adelaide Football Club is putting itself on the world map.
And Cahill is Port Adelaide. His father, John, won a record-breaking 10 premierships as a Port Adelaide coach and his uncle Darrell being one of the club’s finest players in the 1970s.
Cahill made his own name in sport, as his well known by his successes in tennis. Rather than live (or falter) in the family’s background in Australian football, Cahill entered the professional tennis ranks in 1984 and achieved two singles titles and 13 doubles crowns before his retirement in 1995.
Cahill also represented Australia at Davis Cup, reaching the world tennis final in 1990.
In retirement, Cahill is a successful tennis coach, most recently guiding Halep to the French Open singles title in May. And he has learned from the wise business world of tennis great Andre Agassi.
There are so many ticks on this resume that Koch’s move to usher Cahill to the boardroom to help the football team is actually a masterstroke to help the club in total. It is the “accidental” succession plan that deserves to play out in 2021.