Port Adelaide news: Mick Malthouse urges Port to not pursue coaching succession plan

Collingwood premiership coach Mick Malthouse is no stranger to coaching succession plans, and the coaching legend has had his say on Port’s potential succession plan with Josh Carr.

Malthouse Ken Hinkley large art

Collingwood premiership coach Mick Malthouse says the Port Adelaide board would be crazy to put an end-date on Ken Hinkley’s career even if they believe Josh Carr will eventually succeed him.

Port Adelaide is set to announce Hinkley’s contract extension this week ahead of the club’s finals campaign after negotiations with his manager Peter Blucher.

The Power are adamant there will be no succession plan announced but want Carr as their future coach, with Hinkley making clear he also believes the 2004 premiership player will one day coach Port Adelaide.

Malthouse is a huge admirer of Hinkley but had his own difficulties with a formal succession plan that saw him move on after the 2010 premiership and 2011 grand final loss to Geelong.

His end date had been locked in, with Malthouse eventually declining to stay as a senior figure at Collingwood as Buckley took over the coaching role.

Malthouse handed the reins over to Nathan Buckley after the 2011 season.

Malthouse told this masthead on Monday the Power board would need flexibility to navigate the challenges that came with having a future senior coach working under Hinkley.

“At the end of the day it’s up to the individuals and the club to sort it out. I have only heard good things about how well they get on. You are half way home if both coaches see eye-to-eye and they have good harmony,” Malthouse said.

“I can guarantee if Ken is going well and wants to stay on, the club would reappoint him. If the club’s board thinks at the end of two more years Ken is going well, why would you step in his way? If he has the taste for it, it would be a strange board to promise something it can’t live up to. What if he wins a premiership? So common sense will prevail. Ken is old enough and smart enough to realise that there will come a time when he will move on, but any board worth its salt weighs up how the team is performing and you don’t break a cycle (of success).”

Hinkley is expected to be re-signed as the coach of the Power. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Hinkley made clear an announcement was close on Sunday after the club’s victory over GWS but said there was no succession plan yet in place.

“To have a succession plan you have got to have other things in place for a start. We’ve started conversations (on a contract extension), but I‘d imagine there’d be a piece that needs to get done before anything like that happens,” he said, referring to his own deal.

“Anyone who thinks that Josh is going on a promise at Port Adelaide, they don’t know Josh Carr well enough. He’s got a commitment to us and I think he has showed that that’s real.”

“Josh Carr will be a coach, be a senior coach one day. I would hope, and I do hope, one day it is at Port Adelaide.”

Originally published as Port Adelaide news: Mick Malthouse urges Port to not pursue coaching succession plan