Tyson Goldsack opens up about joining Port Adelaide as a player for the 2021 season

They might be gunning for a premiership but there is still room for young talent at Port Adelaide. Where are the young guns at?

He had Port Adelaide marching to the beat of his drum as the Power emerged as a contender in 2020.

And Tyson Goldsack says he’s on the lookout for new ways to give the Power the spark required in 2021 to build on the preliminary final appearance and go for premiership glory.

Those who knew the former Collingwood premiership winner – turned Port Adelaide development coach now 33-year-old “rookie” – weren’t surprised at all when he emerged as the driving force behind Hamish Hartlett playing a musical instrument during the team’s post-match team song for a period during the 2020 season.

The unique approach was so well received it became a key driver behind the club revealing a new partnership with KFC at the year’s end.

“It was almost on the back of you didn’t have family or friends or supporters in the rooms after the game, even working staff weren’t really there,” Goldsack said.

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Tyson Goldsack hands the drum to Hamish Hartlett. Picture: Supplied

Hamish Hartlett in action. Picture: Supplied

“So it was a little bit empty and I had never really experienced that, it was always packed when I was at Collingwood.

“So to have some big wins and some were really momentous and we just needed some more hype in the room so I just brought it out for a bit of a feel and it kind of bands everyone together a bit more.

“I didn’t know if it would stick, it was up to the players. I just thought this is what we could do and it was ‘Hammer (Hartlett) it is over to you to see if you can make it stick’.

“So it came out for a couple of games and then the win was enough and the noise of the boys and occasions were big enough.”

So will the drum return in 2021?

“I don’t know what will happen with it this year,” Goldsack said.

“That’s the way I operate, it’s week by week and spur of the moment.”

It is this kind of thinking that has Goldsack labelled as “authentic”, “eccentric” by those who know him.

Ken Hinkley didn’t mince his words, saying, “You’ve got to know Goldy to understand strange.”

“I think a little bit differently,” Goldsack says of Hinkley’s statement.

“I like to think that there is not just one way of going about things, and clubs have probably been guilty of this in the past.

“They’ve been thinking well you are a footballer you must fit the footballer mould and that is just not the case.”

It is this approach, crafted from Goldsack’s unique journey in footy, that might become a serious asset for the Power.

It is why the Power snapped him up after he left Collingwood, following 165 games in 12 years at the Pies, with a move to SA always on the cards given his wife is from Adelaide.

Overlooked in his draft year, Goldsack was eventually selected by the Pies as a 19-year-old and 13 years later he retired as a 2010 premiership player while also experiencing the heartache of a losing Grand Final in 2018.

But what Goldsack learnt from this, and overcoming injuries to get everything he could out of himself, is that a one-stop-shop approach doesn’t work for everyone within a footy club.

“We have 43 blokes on our list, 42 without me and they all think differently, some things get people up and some things don’t,” Goldsack said.

Tyson Goldsack will be a playing-coach at the Power this year. Picture: Sarah Reed

“So it’s about how you get the best out of 42 people on a list and I think you have to do things differently.

“Sometimes it will be in some players’ wheelhouses and other times it won’t but if we can just keep things fresh and what is unchanged it is a very long season

“Even with a shortened pre-season, if you start at January 1 and go to the end of September, which we hope, there are going to be ups and downs so it is about trying to monitor those and minimise the downs and maximise the ups.

“I like to keep thinking and finding different ways of keeping the place happy and fresh.”

This off-field role isn’t the only key part Goldsack will have at the Power in 2021.

Like 2020 he will be a development coach for Port, with the view to playing SANFL for the Magpies.

But this year he is on the Power’s playing list and eligible for AFL selection after he was coaxed out of “retirement” and taken by Port in the Rookie Draft.

“I wouldn’t say I needed convincing (being a playing rookie as well as development coach), I just didn’t want it to take away from being a coach,” Goldsack said.

Tyson Goldsack still had the hunger to play at AFL level. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

“I want to be a coach in the long term and this will help.

“I get to be out in training and working with our young defenders in their positioning, judging the ball and little things like that.

“And I can also do that in the game, which I wouldn’t be able to do.”

Goldsack said his body felt fresh after a lean year in 2019.

“It was probably the first off-season where I didn’t have any surgery,” he said.

“So I came into 2020 feeling really good and ready to play for the Maggies in that leadership role and had a good pre-season filing in and training here with the ones and felt really good.

“So when it came around to the season (Port were not able to field a SANFL team) I was thinking “gee I wouldn’t mind being a part of this still” the itch is still there to play.

“And when CD (head of football Chris Davies) came to me at the end of the season and said this is what we are thinking and these are the reasons why I was happy to help out, I’ve been that way throughout my whole career whatever it takes to make a place better and more successful I’m prepared to do it.”

Originally published as Tyson Goldsack opens up about joining Port Adelaide as a player for the 2021 season