Hinkley confirms performance-based finals contract clause
Straight-talking Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has volunteered details of his coaching contract, including a clause that he must make finals by 2020 to trigger a new deal with the Power.
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Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has confirmed that his three-year contract has clauses requiring the Power to make the finals in either 2018, 2019 or 2020 in order to trigger an extension for 2021.
Speaking on SEN radio on Tuesday morning in response to a report by Caroline Wilson on Channel Nine’s Footy Classified on Monday night, Hinkley was open about the structure of the contract he signed with Port Adelaide in September 2017.
“I’m quite happy to say my contract has clauses in it. Everyone’s contract has some kind of clause in it and if you don’t perform you don’t deserve the add-ons of a contract,” Hinkley said.
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“I’m more than comfortable — as I was two years ago when I signed it — to accept the responsibility of performance.
“I’m quite happy to say if we don’t make finals I won’t be the coach of the football club in the near future.”
Hinkley denied that the incentivised nature of his deal put added pressure on his job going in to the 2020 season.
“You don’t have to worry about clauses in contracts if you perform at the level you think you can and I think we can perform at a very high level in the near future.
“I’m very confident I will fulfil the entire part of my contract and possibly more if that’s what we can do as a football club.”
Port Adelaide suffered an 84-point loss to North Melbourne on Saturday night in a display Hinkley called as bad a performance as he’d seen in his time at the club.
“There’s not one part of the game we can walk away saying we were competitive. It was a number done on us by the Kangaroos.
“Everything you think could go wrong did go wrong.”
The defeat consigns the Power to 11th spot on the AFL ladder going in to round 23, and means they will need results to go their way if they are to play finals in 2019.