Port Adelaide’s million-dollar coach conundrum in regards to Ken Hinkley
Port coach Ken Hinkley is in a battle to keep his job, regardless of a contract that carries a major payout if he is sacked before 2021. But the real test of nerve is in the Power boardroom where the club’s directors cannot afford to be held to ransom by fans.
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Port Adelaide has a $1 million decision to make.
Keep Ken Hinkley as senior coach — for his eighth AFL season at Alberton — and the expectation is 3000 members will vacate their seats at Adelaide Oval. This would remove $1 million from the Power’s constantly strained bottom line.
Sack Ken Hinkley and there will be a payout and subsidiary fall-out costs with hiring a new coach — and who would that be? There goes another $1 million, at least.
And AFL House, that became concerned about Port Adelaide’s increased borrowing just before Christmas, will be uneasy at a time when chief executive Gillon McLachlan wants club debt across the 18-team national league to fall rather than rise.
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So how will the Port Adelaide board behave, particularly if — as many expect — the Power misses the top-eight finals for the second season in a row and for the fourth time in the past five years?
Keeping trust in Hinkley would recognise there has been progress in Port Adelaide’s refit this season, even if the Power does not meet club president David Koch’s pass mark of playing in September.
A year after Port Adelaide could not beat a top-eight side, the Power has won against AFL premier West Coast in Perth, beaten this year’s competition Geelong at Adelaide Oval and finally cleared away the jinx with Adelaide in the second Showdown of the season.
The best of Port Adelaide this season is better than the best of 2018. This is emphasised by the critique of former St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt who said on SEN1629 on Monday: “I would not want to play Port if they play finals. They have played the best footy I’ve seen this year.”
But the gap between the best and the worst as Port Adelaide has defined “inconsistency” remains too wide — and is the anchor that is repeatedly dragging the Power out of serious top-eight contention.
The concerning note in Port Adelaide’s form line this season is the lack of consistency from the senior players.
So much of Hinkley’s blueprint — with a new playbook and new assistant coaches — presented with great enthusiasm in the pre-season has never unfolded as planned. Critically, the lack of a genuine tandem of key forwards — as Charlie Dixon recovered from serious leg injuries, young forward Todd Marshall has not risen to the challenge and club champion Justin Westhoff struggled after a five-goal opening — has left the Power lame to finish its high count of inside-50 offerings.
This was highlighted at the weekend. The Power held top-eight rival Greater Western Sydney to 56 points, but managed just 55 itself from a game-high 53 inside-50s.
Port Adelaide has averaged 78 points this season, three fewer than last season when efficiency in attack became a keynote to correct this year. But the best-made plans have vanished while the Power’s key forwards have delivered the smallest count of goals across the AFL.
And then there are the members, the so-called “faithful” who proved across 2008-2012 that they can tear apart the Port Adelaide Football Club as much as the “barbarians” who were at the gate during the tarp days at Football Park.
They have clearly put the club’s off-field leaders on notice. They have taken issue with the co-captain decision that ended a tradition of a solo skipper wearing No. 1. They have signalled by their absence from the Oval a reluctance to sit through frustration as Port Adelaide players make repetitive mistakes in matches.
They have prompted club chief executive Keith Thomas to this week issue a “mea culpa” message to the members and fans promising to put “our members back at the heart of our club”. There is fear of another damaging disconnect with the traditional Port Adelaide supporter base.
And a rebellious fan base does not make for a joyful invitation list to the “big party” for Port Adelaide’s 150th anniversary season next year.
If Thomas can appease the agitated membership — and again underpin Hinkley’s security — he will achieve another success story in his nine-year tenure at Alberton.
But the real test is in the Port Adelaide boardroom. The million-dollar question is: Will they back Hinkley, just as the much-threatened Richmond directors did with under-siege coach Damien Hardwick nine months before celebrating a drought-breaking AFL premiership in 2017 and becoming the first AFL club with 100,000 members?