Port Adelaide will not allow Suns to poach Ken Hinkley and Adelaide Crows are preparing to extend Don Pyke’s contract

GOLD Coast set off the musical chairs in AFL coaching by sacking Rodney Eade. But Port Adelaide will not allow Ken Hinkley to return to the Suns

STAYING IN SA. Adelaide coach Don Pyke, left, and Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley can expect their AFL clubs to put forward new deals in the summer to keep them off the musical chair run started on Tuesday by the sacking of Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade. Picture: Sarah Reed.

KEN Hinkley is off limits to Gold Coast as it starts the search for Rodney Eade’s replacement.

And the Crows are preparing to have a new deal to coach Don Pyke by Christmas.

Hinkley is already being linked to the Suns’ vacancy with questions on how his tenure at Alberton was rattled by the record 84-point loss to Adelaide in Showdown 43 at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.

But Port Adelaide president David Koch - who is battle scarred with Gold Coast from their China adventure - is adamant he will not lose Hinkley, who is still a popular and admired figure among Suns players from his work at the AFL club from 2009-12.

“Ken Hinkley is contracted to the Port Adelaide Football Club for 2018. Full stop,” Koch told The Advertiser. “Repeat, full stop.”

Hinkley on Tuesday night dismissed the link to Gold Coast saying: “I’ve got a job - and I’d love this football club to get where it wants to go (with me).”

There will be no hold, however, on Power midfield manager and former Brisbane coach Michael Voss if he becomes the third Port Adelaide assistant coach to be offered a senior appointment. This follows Alan Richardson (St Kilda) and the late Phil Walsh (Adelaide) being poached from Alberton.

“We understand a contract cannot hold an assistant coach when he is offered the better opportunity of being a senior coach,’ Koch said. “But no contracted senior coach can walk to another senior job.

“Ken Hinkley is contract to Port Adelaide for next season. Full stop.”

Poaching of contracted senior coaches is not without precedent in the AFL. Gary Ayres walked from Geelong at the end of 1999 - despite being on contract for Season 2000 - to replace Malcolm Blight at Adelaide when the Cats refused to contemplate extending his tenure at Kardinia Park.

Gold Coast started the musical chairs game in AFL coaching - that could extend to Collingwood and North Melbourne soon - by sacking Eade in the lead-up to Saturday’s Q Clash derby with Brisbane at the Gabba.

Essendon premiership player Dean Solomon will stand-in as the Suns senior coach for the remaining three games of the home-and-away series while Gold Coast chief executive Mark Evans seeks the Queensland club’s third coach since its AFL start in 2011.

Hinkley and Port Adelaide are expected to work through a contract extension at the end of the season. The fifth-ranked Power is destined to qualify for next month’s final - the mission statement put before Hinkley 11 months ago after Port Adelaide missed the major round for the second consecutive season.

At the same time, Adelaide chief executive Andrew Fagan wants to work through a contract extension for Pyke who is the prime contender for AFL coach of the year.

Pyke is contract for Season 2018 - the last year of his original three-season deal with the Crows.

Fagan has declared the best time to negotiate Pyke’s contract extension is during the end-of-season reviews. He anticipates this will lead to a new deal being signed before Christmas.

Gold Coast has three assistant coaches to consider from the SA market - Voss, Power senior assistant Matthew Nicks and Crows forwards coach David Teague.

Collingwood is now expected to follow Richmond’s model by keeping senior coach Nathan Buckley while clearing out his assistant panel with the exception of contracted pair Brenton Sanderson and Brad Gotch.

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott, despite his repeated commitment to the Kangaroos, will be linked to Suns.