Port Adelaide coach and former Cat Ken Hinkley celebrates AFL life membership after a combined 300 games as a player and coach
Port Adelaide star Travis Boak says he knew from the first time he spoke to Ken Hinkley that he was “part of the family”. He reveals how the Power coach reinstalled belief at the club and turned it around.
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It is the off-season of 2016 and Travis Boak heads to Adelaide’s prestigious Grange Golf Club to meet coach Ken Hinkley for 18 holes.
Boak, then Port Adelaide captain, pairs up with a friend, while teammate Hamish Hartlett is partnered with Hinkley.
What is meant to be a casual round turns into a full-blown competition and scores are tied heading into the final hole. It is captain versus coach.
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Boak recalls it like this: “I’ve hit a drive straight down the middle and Hamish has hit one in the trees and Kenny’s come up, he’s hit it, smoked it into the trees and it’s hit the tree and bounced off back onto the fairway.
“That’s typical Kenny, it all worked out for him.”
When Hinkley coached Port Adelaide against Greater Western Sydney at Metricon Stadium last Sunday, he gained AFL life membership by notching up a combined 300 games as player and coach (he played 132 VFL/AFL games for Fitzroy and Geelong, three state games for Victoria and coached his 165th game against the Giants).
From his 165 games as Power coach, he’s won 93 of them and seen the club rise from financial doldrums in 2012, to the current “Never Tears Us Apart” powerhouse.
Boak was holidaying in Noosa in October 2012 when Hinkley – then assistant at Gold Coast – was appointed Port’s new coach.
Hinkley rang the dynamic midfielder and something about their phone conversation made Boak know straight away that change was coming.
“We were struggling in 2012 and you could sense the passion he had in his voice … people from inside the club have so much passion for (Port), but for him not knowing that much about Port Adelaide instantly you could sense in his voice that he was part of the family,” Boak recalled.
“He came in and said: ‘This is who we are. This is what we stand for. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks’.
“And that created a lot of belief in the club … and from there, we’ve become the team that we want to be.”
It’s fitting then, that in Port’s 150th year – and in the season Hinkley achieves AFL life membership – that the Power has risen to the top of the AFL ladder.
Boak, who captained the Power from Hinkley’s first season in 2013 until 2018, says his coach’s enduring philosophy is to build relationships with his players, built around a culture of the “door’s always open”.
The 53-year-old’s coaching resume is extensive: from winning premierships in suburban Victorian leagues, to winning AFL premierships as an assistant with Geelong in 2007 and 2009.
Hinkley, who counts himself lucky to have played alongside Gary Ablett Sr, and then coached Gary Ablett Jr, says coaching is a job without a day off, which could explain a moment or two of grumpiness.
“Whether it’s in the background or whether it’s in the forefront of your mind, there’s footy and that’s the way it should be,” he says.
“I’m lucky I love it still.”
Geelong’s 2007 Norm Smith Medallist, Steve Johnson, says Hinkley’s knack was for always knowing the perfect time to deliver honest, challenging feedback.
In fact, Hinkley describes his philosophy like this: “Right time. Right moment. Right comment”.
That mantra has been called upon this week as he made the tough decision to drop veteran midfielder Tom Rockliff for the clash with the Giants.
“They’re the things that hurt you the most as a coach, because you know how important it is to these players,” Hinkley muses.
“They don’t ever go out there and not try. I get fascinated when people think players are not trying or they’re not giving their all.
“They’re wanting to be as good as they can possibly be and they never, ever want to be letting anyone down, their family, their team, me.
“But sometimes you have to be the circuit breaker and if they’re form’s not quite where it needs to be, some of the best things you can do for them is release that pressure.”
AFL great Cameron Ling – who was a “crazy little Cats supporter” growing up – recalls “Kenny” on the field.
“I remember him running off half back and trying to kick goals on the run, like any good attacking half back should do,” Ling says.
But it wasn’t until pre-season in 2004 that they met, when Hinkley joined Geelong as assistant under Mark Thompson.
“He had a great way – and still does – with young players,” Ling recalls.
“It’s a combination I’ve always found of some really strong boundaries, but within those boundaries he’s always encouraged players to be themselves, back themselves and trust their instinct.
“Guys like Stevie Johnson and Gary Ablett Jnr and Andrew Mackie really thrived under him because they always felt Kenny would back them in to use their ability in important moments in games.”
Johnson, in fact, says that the way Hinkley selflessly helped him when he was dealing with a bad ankle injury in 2004, solidified his respect for him.
“He travelled with me for one and a half hours each way to help me get some treatment on my injured ankle a couple of times a week for a month,” Johnson says.
“It made me want to do anything for him.
“He has made an outstanding contribution to the game, not only as a player where it’s probably been a little bit less celebrated, but he was a star player – second or third in a Brownlow off a halfback flank.”
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In fact, Hinkley finished third in the 1992 Brownlow behind Hawthorn’s Jason Dunstall and the overall winner, Footscray’s Scott Wynd.
Boak laughs: “Yeah, yeah, he tells us about that all the time”.
For Ling, the enduring memory is of Hinkley’s smile.
“When you’d run into him in the club, or you’d be having a semi-serious meeting, there still seemed to be a genuine smile, that he loved being there and he wanted us to love being there,” Ling says.
“We could talk some really serious, important footy things and we could get intense in our conversation but we could also have the light of the fun banter and he’d have me in stitches.”
But for Boak, it always comes back to relationships.
“I couldn’t be more grateful for what he’s been able to do for me as a player as well as person,” he says.
“I’ve had some ups and downs over my career whether it’s been off-field or on-field and he’s always been there to offer support and guide me through the situation to become a better person, really, not just a better footballer and that’s what I’m so grateful for.”
Hinkley says his AFL life membership has taken him by surprise.
“For me, I didn’t play lots of games of footy, so to be around football for a long time, to eventually be involved at this level for that many games, it’s something I’ll look back on later on and be really proud of,” he says.
Originally published as Port Adelaide coach and former Cat Ken Hinkley celebrates AFL life membership after a combined 300 games as a player and coach
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