Port Adelaide could announce official coaching succession plan for Ken Hinkley and Josh Carr before round 1

It’s been long speculated, but Port Adelaide is now considering going public on an official plan that would set the club’s next coach in stone. See the exclusive details.

Port Adelaide is strongly considering unveiling Josh Carr as its next coach before the start of the AFL season.

The Power has long stressed it has no formal handover plan, but the club is understood to be in talks about revealing senior assistant Carr as Ken Hinkley’s successor.

It is believed the wheels are in motion to announce the coaching transition in the lead-up to round 1.

The duo will remain in their roles for this coming season, in the last year of Hinkley’s contract.

What is unknown is when a handover will take place.

Josh Carr and Ken Hinkley at work. Picture: Sarah Reed/AFL Photos

Port’s football committee anointed Carr as next in line in August 2023, when he committed to the Power after withdrawing from the race to be Richmond’s senior coach.

Just three days after it was reported that Carr was staying at Alberton, Hinkley signed his two-year extension.

They are understood to have been aligned on a handover since then.

Hinkley, 58, is the longest-serving coach in the Power’s history, having been in charge for 274 games (165 wins, 109 losses) from the end of 2012.

He has led the club to four preliminary finals, where the team has fallen short each time, including last year against Sydney.

Carr, who played 124 games for the Power across two stints (2000-04, 2009-10), returned to Port’s coaching box at the end of 2022.

His coaching career began at the Power from 2011-15, before he took the reins at North Adelaide, winning a SANFL premiership in 2018.

Carr was an assistant at Fremantle from 2020-22.

Port Adelaide’s official Carr-Hinkley succession plan could be unveiled before round 1. Picture: Rooney/Getty Images

Coaching succession plans have come into vogue over the past two decades.

John Longmire was groomed to replace Paul Roos at Sydney at the end of 2010, Nathan Buckley took over from Mick Malthouse at Collingwood 12 months later, Roos stepped aside at Melbourne for Simon Goodwin ahead of the 2017 season, John Worsfold did the same at Essendon after the 2020 campaign and Sam Mitchell succeeded Alastair Clarkson at Hawthorn late in 2021.

In November, Longmire resigned as Swans coach, passing the baton to senior assistant Dean Cox.

Koch gave a ringing endorsement of Carr in April last year.

“Ken’s really supportive of Josh developing into a senior coach,” Koch told the ABC.

“Ken has publicly said he would like to see him as the senior coach of Port Adelaide.”

Twelve months ago, Hinkley told Nine Newspapers that if Carr eventually replaced him “it would be a bloody good decision”.