Port Adelaide exists to win premierships and Ken Hinkley is still the right man for the job
Port Adelaide fans expect premierships, not middle-of-the-road finishes, and Ken Hinkley is still the right man to guide the Power to its second AFL flag, says Dwayne Russell.
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Ken Hinkley can’t win. Unless he wins it all.
That’s the brutal nature of coaching Port Adelaide. But it’s also the unique beauty of coaching and playing for Port Adelaide. Fans expect premierships. Anything less is a failure.
And if you fail, you live it for the rest of your life. You can’t forget it or outrun it. It becomes part of your DNA. 1984 still haunts me.
If, like last season, Port misses the finals from here, it’s another failed season on Ken’s resume.
If Port reaches the finals but doesn’t go all the way, fans will still see it as another missed opportunity under Ken’s watch.
And rightly so. Port Adelaide’s player list is good enough to win the premiership this year.
Port was good enough to beat the reigning premiers the West Coast Eagles in Perth earlier this season.
And Port was good enough to defeat the top of the ladder, best team so far this season, Geelong, with a classic, hard, inspiringly ferocious attack of every contest last week.
So the team is good enough to beat the best. And Ken’s coaching, tactics and game style, are good enough to beat the best.
Which is why I wouldn’t swap Ken as coach with any other person in the AFL world right now.
There could be up to six or seven AFL senior coach changes at the end of this season, in what looms as a giant game of musical chairs.
Brendan Bolton has already been removed by Carlton.
Brad Scott and North Melbourne have parted company.
Most don’t expect Alan Richardson to last beyond the end of this season at St Kilda.
Two of Essendon’s all-time greats, Matthew Lloyd and Tim Watson left Essendon’s board with no doubt about where they stood, when they led the growing anti-John Worsfold chorus this week.
Well-connected former Hawk Ben Dixon suggested multiple times last week that Alastair Clarkson and Hawthorn could part company at the end of the season.
And it officially looks like there is a chance John Longmire could leave Sydney, with North Melbourne President Ben Buckley confirmed to have spoken to Longmire’s manager Liam Pickering about luring Longmire back to the Kangaroos.
But despite ongoing debate about whether Ken is capable of coaching Port from an inconsistent middle-of-the-road squad to a premiership level team, I wouldn’t ever swap Hinkley for four-time premiership coach Clarkson.
Because I like how the stage is now set, and how equipped Ken and the football department is to take the next step.
Port is as well set as the Bulldogs were under Luke Beveridge at the start of 2016. Port is as well set as Richmond was under Damien Hardwick in 2018. And Port is as well set as the Eagles were under Adam Simpson last season. Beveridge, Hardwick and Simpson; all like Hinkley now; were non-premiership winners with doubts surrounding them before delivering big closing months to their drought breaking seasons.
Forget last night and last year. For Ken, this playing group, Chairman David Koch and CEO Keith Thomas; it’s all about what happens next.
And for the senior players like Travis Boak, Robbie Gray, Justin Westhoff, Brad Ebert and Co., who are fast running out of time to grab a flag, their window of opportunity is more open than ever.
The reality of coaching and playing for a club like Port Adelaide, with 149 years of successful history, is that not everyone gets their picture on the wall for eternity.
There are no photos in the halls at Alberton of teams that finished fifth.
In the 38 years since 1984, I’ve never received a phone call to attend a runners-up reunion.
And I don’t ever expect, or want one.
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