Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley consoles Brenton Sanderson but has no opening at Alberton

PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has consoled sacked Crows coach Brenton Sanderson, but he is not offering him a return to Alberton.

Brenton Sanderson and Ken Hinkley earlier this year, before facing off in a Showdown. Picture: Sarah Reed.

PORT Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley has consoled sacked Crows coach Brenton Sanderson, but he is not offering him a return to Alberton.

Hinkley has spoken to Sanderson — as part of the solidarity among AFL coaches — since his dismissal at Adelaide on Wednesday.

But while Sanderson wants to stay in coaching, there is no position for him at Alberton where he was a development coach in 2007.

Sanderson then left the Power to join Hinkley as an assistant coach at Geelong.

Hinkley noted every AFL coach starts his job knowing the threat of being axed — from either a player revolt or poor results — hanging over his head.

“It is a brutal industry, it is a tough industry to work in,” Hinkley said of AFL senior coaching. “As a coach, we all say that we go in knowing the end can be what it is. But it does not make it right.

“I gave (Brenton) a call. It was just one of support. And one (to say) I understand, no I was considerate of his family and himself and how they must be feeling at that point in time.

“And I know he would have been doing his absolute best for that football club.”

Sanderson on Thursday declared his desire to remain in AFL coaching ranks and revealed he had already been contacted by club executives.

He is expected to move to Collingwood — where he was a player — to become an assistant coach to his best friend, Nathan Buckley.

Originally published as Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley consoles Brenton Sanderson but has no opening at Alberton