Port Adelaide assistant coaches stood down until May 3, leaving them feeling ‘vulnerable’
Port Adelaide football general manager Chris Davies says the club’s assistant coaches who have been stood down until early May, due to COVID-19 impacts, no doubt have concerns about their long-term futures.
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Port Adelaide’s assistant coaches have been “stood down’’ until May 3 and football general manager Chris Davies admits several have been left feeling “vulnerable’’ about their long-term futures.
With all coaches and players who travelled to Gold Coast for the round one win at Metricon Stadium in self-isolation until Sunday, Davies said the likelihood of severe AFL cost-cutting measures next year because of the coronavirus fallout had left the football department on edge.
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Senior coach Ken Hinkley is the only Power coach officially working through the pandemic until May 3, with an AFL review at the end of April likely to decide when assistant and development coaches can return to action.
Some of them might not return at all.
“We’ve stood down all of our coaches for this period,’’ Davies said.
“And without the opportunity to have visibility on what next year is going to look like from a soft cap perspective, we’ve got some people who are out of contract who I’m sure are feeling unfortunately vulnerable at the moment.
“But the reality is until we get some clarity from the AFL as to what way they want to go in the future, we’re just in a holding pattern.
“Right now those guys, I know they are workaholics anyway, are staying in contact with all of their players and with each other as a coaching group, which is great, because we had a pretty good pre-season, we had a good first game, so we felt like we’d made some strides.
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“Our challenge right now is to keep our players in as good a fitness level as we possibly can and our coaches connected with each other, and also the group as well as we can, so that when the season starts up again – and we are confident that the AFL wants to play again this year – that when we get back we are in the best shape we possibly can be.’’
Port, like all AFL clubs, was last week forced to stand down 80 per cent of its staff as the season was suspended due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The shutdown period will last until at least May 31.
The league has told clubs to slash their “soft cap’’ expenditure from $9.7 million to $8.7 million for this season, and then down to just $6.7 million for 2021.
The Power’s coaching staff includes Hinkley, senior assistant Michael Voss, midfield coach Jarrad Schofield, defence coach Brett Montgomery, forwards coach Nathan Bassett, part-time rucks coach Dean Brogan, SANFL senior coach Matthew Lokan and development coaches
Chad Cornes, Scott Thompson, Trent Hentschel, Geoff Morris and Tyson Goldsack.
“The challenge with all of this is to look at what 2021 looks like in the AFL because by the sounds of things from AFL House, we’re going to be working with a smaller budget,” Davies told Sportsday SA.
“So, whatever we do in the short term we must keep in mind that 2021 is going to look different as well.
“It’s just a really tough time for everybody at the moment and there’s a whole heap of people in footy who are feeling vulnerable.
“Until the AFL gives us some guidance in regards to the specifics of what next year is going to look like it’s really hard for us to make some decisions right now, other than knowing that clearly we are going to have to make some changes at the end of this year.’’