Key moments from Port Adelaide’s 2023 season launch and Hall of Fame night

A month after having his board bid denied, Port Adelaide legend Warren Tredrea returned to the fold for the club’s night of nights. Here’s what went down.

Port Adelaide captain Tom Jonas spoke on stage at the 2023 season launch. Picture: Tom Huntley

On a night when Port Adelaide honoured its past and spruiked its 2023 ambitions, coach Ken Hinkley stayed very much in the present.

Hinkley reiterated at the club’s Hall of Fame and season launch at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday that this year’s list was as good as any he had coached in his decade at the Power.

He then turned his attention to round 1 against Brisbane – a rematch of the clubs’ 2022 campaign opener, which the Lions won by 11 points.

“I’m looking forward to clipping a team that’s given us a couple over the last couple of years,” Hinkley said.

“Round 1 last year sticks in the mind a little too much.”

Power captain Tom Jonas said the team wanted to play faster this coming season.

Defensively, it planned to outnumber the opposition more often at marking contests.

“We’re not typically the tallest defence going around, so we figure if we can have more people at the contest, that can help us win the contest and kickstart our offence,” Jonas said.

Andrew Obst representing father Peter Obst, Roger Delaney and Rohan Smith at Port Adelaide’s 2023 season launch and Hall of Fame event. Picture: Ben Clark

In what was Port Adelaide’s first Hall of Fame induction since 2019, Power premiership star Chad Cornes, six-time SANFL flag winners, Roger Delaney, Peter Obst and Rohan Smith, and the management committee that helped secure the club’s AFL licence in 1994, then start in the national league at the end of 1996 were all honoured.

Cornes, who played 239 games for the Power, including in the 2004 grand final win, highlighted the late Phil Walsh in his acceptance speech, saying the former Power assistant was the biggest influence on his football career.

He mentioned how Walsh – who was killed in 2015 when he was Crows coach – told him to do two things one off-season: buy a block of land to build a house and train with him every day.

Both happened.

“We all miss him – he went out of his way to help. So that’s one thing I try to do now with some of our boys is to go out of my way to help them and try to be an influence on them like Walshy was to me,” said Cornes, now the Power’s forwards coach.

Other notable moments from Wednesday night:

■ A month after being knocked back for an immediate elevation to the club’s board, AFL premiership captain Warren Tredrea took to the stage as one of seven Port Adelaide Hall of Famers to hand 2023 guernseys to off-season recruits. Tredrea had hoped to replace director Darren Cahill and was disappointed when chairman David Koch told him he would need to stand at the members’ elections at the end of the year for governance reasons. Tredrea, a four-time All-Australian and the Power’s all-time leading goalkicker, passed the No. 32 jumper to tall forward Tom Scully.

Jason Horne-Francis received his 2023 jumper from club great Kane Cornes. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

■ Power great turned media identity Kane Cornes has made no secret that he is a big fan of Jason Horne-Francis and has strongly backed his former club’s off-season trade for him. Cornes was also part of the guernsey exchange, giving his old number, 18, to Horne-Francis. The other pairings were: John Cahill (Junior Rioli), Brian Cunningham (Francis Evans), Bruce Abernethy (Tom McCallum), George Fiacchi (Nathan Barkla) and Paul Northeast (Kyle Marshall).

■ Hinkley touched on how 2018 draftees Zak Butters and Connor Rozee had been stepping up their influence over the squad. “They’ve probably taken over a little bit from Tom and Trav (Boak), the older boys, like Charlie (Dixon), so they (the veterans) are starting to become just part of the show now, not ‘the show’,” he said. That was evidenced by Butters and Rozee joining Boak on the veteran’s traditional off-season trip to the US and the leadership group on its summer getaway to welcome this year’s recruits. On Wednesday night, it was Rozee – not long-time faces of the club like Boak, Dixon or Ollie Wines – whose image was emblazoned on the big screen Hall of Fame backdrop, alongside such Port Adelaide greats as Russell Ebert, Fos Williams, Gavin Wanganeen and Bob McLean.

Former Port Adelaide licence management committee Tony Hobby, Phil Hoffmann, Rob Hoey, Greg Boulton, Brian Cunningham, Frank Hayter, Jim Nitschke, David Judd were honoured. Picture: Ben Clark

■ MC Chris Dittmar lightheartedly told Jonas on stage that it was “very irresponsible” of the Triple M breakfast show to suggest a few weeks ago that he might not captain the Power in 2023. Dittmar is, of course, a co-host of the aforementioned program. Jonas rang that day to say he was not aware he was handing the reins over and set the record straight on Wednesday night. “Got to keep you honest there, Ditts,” Jonas said. “The rumour mill’s not always right.”

■ Cult hero and six-time SANFL premiership player Rohan Smith had the crowd in stitches during a hilariously dry speech that included an anecdote about how he rarely spoke football with his two children. “I just said to them one night ‘Google Rohan Smith’ and they did and a 300-game Western Bulldogs player came up,” the former Magpie said. “So this is basically your Google search tonight.”