Port Adelaide Hall of Fame: Ken Hinkley reveals relief of public succession plan
On a night where those who forged the past at Port Adelaide were honoured, outgoing Power coach Ken Hinkley addressed the future, as he prepares to lead his final season at Port.
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Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley says he is relieved the club’s succession plan is public so his team can focus on the season ahead.
The Power this week revealed Hinkley would pass the reins to senior assistant Josh Carr at the end of 2025, ending 18 months of speculation about the likelihood of a handover.
Hinkley said next Friday night’s trial match against Adelaide in Mount Barker “can’t come quick enough to get going and start talking about footy”.
“I’m relieved that it’s done and we know our direction going forward,” Hinkley said at the club’s season launch and hall of fame event on Friday night.
“That is to get on with business in 2025 and make sure this is as successful as it can possibly be.
“It’s an easy moment for us internally because we understand what’s been going on, how we’ve been managing things and where we expected them to end up.
“I’m just grateful that the club’s allowed it to become exactly as I would’ve dreamt and hoped over the last couple of years.
“That is to help Josh get ready, guide him a little bit along the way, help the players continue to improve and then look forward to the moment when we start the season, we start winning and we start playing, and barracking for Port Adelaide again.”
VFL/AFL coaching games record holder Mick Malthouse questioned the timing of the announcement, telling this masthead it could be a distraction for the Power so close to round 1 and the club should have done it before Christmas.
Hinkley said he was keeping the team’s focus on what was immediately around the corner.
After trials against the Crows and St Kilda, then an intra-club match, Port Adelaide opens its campaign against Collingwood at the MCG on March 15.
“That’s probably the overriding thing for me as a coach still this year is to make sure we don’t get distracted and we get on with business,” Hinkley said.
“Round 1 will be upon us really quickly and you have to make a great start to an AFL season otherwise it becomes really, really challenging.”
Power captain Connor Rozee said the club’s position was comforting.
“We’re fully focused on hopefully bringing some success for Ken and everyone at our football club,” he said.
“And knowing we’ve got Josh and the relationship that we’ve had for a while now is really exciting for what the future holds.”
Along with the inductions of Power great Robbie Gray, boot studder of 58 years Alfie Trebilcock and the drought-breaking 1977 premiership team into the hall of fame, the night also featured the Power’s recruits receiving their 2025 guernseys from past players, as per club tradition.
The nicest pairing was Stuart Cochrane giving the No. 37 jumper to son Tom.
Stuart featured 54 times for the Power from 2003-05 then became its academies director before stepping aside after being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2018.
Chad Cornes, who wore 35 during his decorated Power career, passed it to mature-age goalsneak Joe Richards, the first Port player to don that number since the late John McCarthy in 2012.
Hinkley gave high praise to Richards, who crossed to Alberton after nine games in two seasons at Collingwood.
“I won’t pump him up too much, but I can’t believe from what he’s displayed at training already that he hasn’t played more AFL football,” he said of the 25-year-old.
GRAY THE GREAT: MODERN CHAMP HEADLINES PORT’S HOF INDUCTEES
One of Port Adelaide’s greatest players, an off-field star and a drought-breaking premiership team are the latest inductees into the club’s hall of fame.
Brilliant small forward/midfielder Robbie Gray, boot studder of 58 years Alfie Trebilcock and the 1977 flag-winning side were recognised at a gala event at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.
Gray retired at the end of 2022 after 271 games across one of the most decorated careers of any Power player.
He claimed three John Cahill Medals as best-and-fairest (2014-16), a record five Showdown medals, one AFL Coaches Association’s Champion Player of the Year award (2014) and two club leading goalkicker gongs (2011, 2018), as well as four All-Australian blazers (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018).
A steal at pick 55 in the 2006 national draft, Gray overcame significant setbacks, including a knee reconstruction in 2012 and cancer diagnosis in 2017, to become a one of the best big-moment players of his generation.
He etched his name into Port Adelaide folklore by kicking the winning goal after the siren against Carlton at the Gabba in 2020.
Three years earlier, he booted the go-ahead major that helped the Power beat St Kilda in the dying seconds of a home game.
In 2014, his four second-term goals were instrumental to Port Adelaide edging Fremantle in a semi-final in Perth.
Gray worked at a meat-packing company the year the Power drafted him, whereas Trebilcock ran his own butcher’s store when he fell into doing the boot studding at Alberton in 1968.
Six decades later, Trebilcock, now 82, remains in the same volunteer role with the Power.
He was involved in 11 SANFL premiership teams before moving to the club’s AFL program in 1997 and playing his part in its 2004 flag triumph.
Port Adelaide gave him life membership in 1979.
The AFL recognised Trebilcock’s long service to the game in 2013 when he received the prestigious Jack Titus Award.
Trebilcock joined Port Adelaide in the same year as club legend the late Russell Ebert, becoming close friends.
Ebert captained the 1977 premiership side, which ended the Magpies’ 12-year flag drought.
That squad beat Glenelg by eight points in the grand final at Football Park to end the SANFL’s centenary season.
Brian Cunningham and Ebert were named as best players, Tim Evans booted seven goals and it was the first of a joint league record 10 flags for John Cahill as coach.
The triumph set Port on the path to win 11 premierships over the next 20 seasons.
Cahill, Cunningham and two of the team’s other stars, Ivan Eckermann and Peter Woite, accepted the honour on behalf of the side on Friday night.
Port Adelaide now has 50 individuals and five teams or groups in its hall of fame.
Originally published as Port Adelaide Hall of Fame: Ken Hinkley reveals relief of public succession plan
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