Port Adelaide cuts five staff members including former premiership hero Michael Wilson and midfield coach Scott Thompson
The financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic has forced Port Adelaide to axe five staff members, including one who played in its 2004 flag and another who starred for Adelaide.
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The coronavirus pandemic has forced Port Adelaide to cut five staff members.
Midfield and development coach Scott Thompson, physiotherapist Michael Wilson, rehabilitation co-ordinator Daniel Buberis and Melbourne based recruiters Chris Drain and Anton Grbac will depart the club.
Port Adelaide general manager of football Chris Davies said it was effective immediately and was a result of the impact of COVID-19 on the club’s finances.
“It’s never easy having to let good people go, especially in circumstances like this when it is of no fault of their own,” Davies said.
“It has been widely reported the impact COVID-19 will have on football departments across the entire industry and for us it is starting to become a reality.
“Michael, Scott, Daniel, Chris and Anton are all outstanding individuals and have contributed greatly to our football club in their respective roles.”
Thompson played 269 games for the Crows after coming to Adelaide from Melbourne before joining the Power in his coaching role in November 2017.
Wilson played 192 AFL games across 12 seasons for the Power.
He was part of Port’s 2004 premiership side and was known as the “heart and soul” of the club before becoming a physio and rejoining the Power in the off-field role.
All of the Power’s coaching staff, apart from senior coach Ken Hinkley, have been stood down from their roles - which Davies said had left them feeling “vulnerable”.
It comes as Hinkley says he is missing the “pressure a little bit” in the COVID-19 imposed AFL shutdown.
It has been five weeks since the first and only round of the AFL in 2020 began as the season was put on ice because of the coronavirus pandemic.
On a video on Port’s website Hinkley said during the unexpected time off, he had found out just how “connected to football” his life was.
“And you realise just how big of a part of your life it is,” he said.
“As time consuming as it is but also the joy that it brings you as much as it is a pressure environment.”
Hinkley’s contract status, finals football required to trigger an automatic one-year extension post this season, has meant he has come under pressure for the past couple of AFL seasons.
He said he was even missing the pressure that comes with footy.
“I was talking to Charlie Dixon yesterday and I said to Charlie exactly that, as silly as this sounds I miss the pressure a little bit,” he said.
“I miss the pressure of performing and winning and losing, we never want to lose but it is part of the game.
“That pressure of contest, competitiveness that comes out in all of us. That’s what I’ve missed the most and found it challenging to get my fix of that.”
Hinkley said he had been passing the time by keeping in contact with players, Davies and the other coaches at the Power to prepare for when footy is able to return.
Port leadership group member Hamish Hartlett earlier this week said the Power’s interstate players had been asked to return to Adelaide by May 10 to prepare for the resumption of the season.
Davies on Thursday said Port were yet to pull the trigger on that request, but the time to make it was quickly approaching.
Hinkley said he also watched the Test documentary about the Australian cricket team, had begun watching the recently released the Last Dance about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls and had read up on some “stuff about pressure situations” and the story of Neale Daniher.
The financial impacts of the coronavirus pandemic is expected to result in widespread changes to the AFL industry.
Hinkley said change could be bad for the game.
“We have to be really careful and protective of the industry we have at the moment,” he said.
“We have a really good game at the moment.”
It is now expected that AFL games could restart as soon as soon as June in “quarantine hubs”, but an announcement about the revised 2020 fixtures will not come next week.
Hinkley said whatever he and the Power needed to do they “will be prepared to do”.
Hinkley also ruled out joining fellow AFL coaches Nathan Buckley, Damien Hardwick and John Worsfold in posting a video of them dancing on Tik Tok.
“I look forward to seeing who’s next (of the AFL coaches to do one), I hope it’s not me,” Hinkley said.