Analysis: Port Adelaide must finally get the elephant out the room, provide transparency to fans on Hinkley-Carr succession plan

Port Adelaide planning to confirm its succession plan from Ken Hinkley to Josh Carr before round 1 is odd timing. This could and should have been done by now, as MATT TURNER writes.

Port Adelaide could confirm Josh Carr as its senior coach-in-waiting in coming days.

The Power hosts its season launch and hall of fame night next Friday, the type of gala event where clubs like to make big announcements.

It will be the elephant in the room if it is not done before then.

In some ways, the issue has been for 18 months.

Speculation has been rife in football circles since August 2023 that Carr will be Ken Hinkley’s successor.

That month was when the Power was understood to have anointed Carr as next in line after he withdrew from the Richmond senior coaching race to stay at Alberton, just as Hinkley re-signed on a two-year deal.

Port Adelaide initially rejected the succession plan talk.

After inking his deal, Hinkley spruiked Carr’s credentials as a future senior coach but said there was no succession plan in place.

Port Adelaide senior assistant Josh Carr. Picture: Jason McCawley/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

A month later, when it was put to Power chief executive Matthew Richardson that the club had been careful not to say there would be a future handover, he said: “We haven’t been careful, it’s just that there isn’t”.

Over time, Port officials have relaxed their stance.

But the club has never gone public.

You could understand why it did not want to 18 months ago.

Succession plans soured spectacularly at Collingwood and Hawthorn, even though the Magpies reaching a preliminary final in Nathan Buckley’s first campaign in 2012 got a little forgotten and Sam Mitchell did wonders in season three at Hawthorn in 2024.

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Two years is a long runway for a potential media circus.

But an announcement should have been made by now.

Doing it in the lead-up to round 1 feels like odd timing.

A potential distraction ahead of playing Collingwood at the MCG on March 15.

Why not announce it on day one of pre-season in November last year?

The story would have simmered by the Power’s first match.

Or Port could have stayed the course, like Sydney, which waited until John Longmire passed the baton on to Dean Cox in November to confirm the succession plan that most of the football world knew about.

In planning to announce it, the toothpaste is out of the tube.

When it goes public, the Power should reveal the timeline of a handover.

During that August 2023 interview with this masthead, Richardson said re-signing Hinkley at that time avoided “creating a void of uncertainty” entering the finals.

Surely there will be some of that with the squad and supporter base if they do not know if Carr will start in 2026 or later.

Hinkley is entering the last year of his contract.

Ken Hinkley with his players last year. Picture: Matt King/AFL Photos/Getty Images

An announcement surely cannot be: “Josh is our next coach, but we can’t tell you when”.

Power great Kane Cornes believed the club should have been more transparent over the issue.

“The talk has festered, but no one has actually come out and said what the deal is,” Cornes said on SEN.

“Was it a handshake deal?

“Was it ticked off by the board?

“They would say no, but everything you hear is that Josh Carr is the next senior coach.

“I don’t know why they’re hiding this.

“Stories like this fester and bubble away to the point where ... they must come out and say this.”

North Melbourne premiership player David King agreed.

“One thing I don’t like is clubs leaving a coach, not necessarily swinging in the breeze, but you’ve got to have absolute clarity about this,” King said.

“You need all the players and staff knowing where it sits and do it as quick as possible.

“These sorts of things, if they’re allowed to fester and bubble away, can be a distraction you don’t need.”

King said Port had the opportunity to “come clean with their fans”.

“It’s their footy club,” he said.

“This always baffles me, the secrecy at footy clubs – who are you keeping the secret from? “The people that pay the bills?”

The Power holds its family day at Alberton on Saturday when Hinkley and captain Connor Rozee are scheduled to speak.

It will be fascinating to see if supporters get clarity on the succession plan or if the questions everyone has linger even longer until a formal announcement.

Originally published as Analysis: Port Adelaide must finally get the elephant out the room, provide transparency to fans on Hinkley-Carr succession plan