Ken Hinkley set for phone call from West Coast Eagles call if Port Adelaide loses to Hawthorn
There are five ifs which could lead Ken Hinkley to the Eagles next year. MARK DUFFIELD unpacks his course there, and reveals why West Coast is waiting by the phone should the Power falter.
Ken Hinkley has become West Coast’s “if” coaching candidate.
That is to say – if Port Adelaide is beaten by Hawthorn on Friday and is out in straight sets for the second year running.
If Port and Hinkley decide that the time is right at that point to call stumps on a 12 year coaching tenure that is yet to produce a grand final berth.
If Hinkley still wanted to coach.
If he was prepared to move west to do it.
If it gets that far, the Eagles should throw another “if” into the ring – if Hinkley did not want to coach would he be prepared to act as a coaching and playing father figure – a footy department “whisperer” in the mould of Mark Williams at Melbourne of Neil Balme at Collingwood, Richmond and Geelong before that.
West Coast fans are impatient waiting for a coaching announcement, increasingly concerned it will affect the club’s list management and ability to trade in players.
It is not uncommon for clubs to have to wait until after the season to appoint a coach. Adam Simpson was interviewed by the Eagles in the days after Hawthorn won the 2013 grand final when he was an assistant there.
And clubs would much rather take two weeks longer and get the appointment right than rush and get it wrong, but the fan unrest is there nonetheless.
Eagles CEO Don Pyke is playing his cards so close to his chest in this coach selection process that he is looking like Paul Newman in a poker game on a train in The Sting.
But sources at West Coast believe that Hinkley will receive a phone call should the Power get tipped out by the Hawks.
That won’t necessarily get him the job at West Coast even if he wants it. It would just be the Eagles ticking every box they needed to tick in the hunt for the best coach, the sources said. As it stands, the Eagles are gradually pruning their list of preferred candidates back to a shortlist with the feeling that the eventual coach will come from one of Geelong assistant Steven King, Melbourne assistant and former Richmond interim coach Andrew McQualter and their own interim coach Jarrad Schofield.
Eagles fans want the club to go back to Dean Cox and Ash Hansen as their teams are eliminated from finals but Cox has repeatedly said he is not in the running.
Carlton sources indicated that now they are out of the running they also expected Hansen to remain at the club with strong family reasons to stay in Melbourne at the moment.
Hinkley would make an interesting addition to any short list.
He might not be able to win finals but he has had Port in finals in seven of his 12 seasons and the Eagles haven’t seen September action since 2020.
There is an industry wide feeling that first time coaches will view the West Coast job as a five year assignment with only three years of job security and your entire senior coaching future on the line if you take it on.
A seasoned coach, who might be worth a longer contract or who might care less about a shorter one, might be an option.
There are other Hinkley characteristics which should make him a person of interest to the Eagles.
He has shown a willingness over the years to promote young players into the senior line up – Ollie Wines and Chad Wingard in the 2013 finals, Todd Marshall as a beanpole 18 year old in a 2017 final against the Eagles, Connor Rozee and Zak Butters as teenage debutants and then Rozee as a 24 year old skipper.
West Coast is going to need someone who sees the talent in kids and is prepared to take the ride with them.
The way he has nurtured and supported Jason Horne Francis since his arrival and how that support might benefit someone like Harley Reid should not be dismissed lightly either.
But even if Hinkley feels “coached-out” or if he just doesn’t fancy ultimate responsibility for wins and losses with this Eagles list, the mentor role – both to coaches and players – that Balme and Williams have played at their clubs is one that should be carefully considered.
The clubs that Balme and Williams have mentored at, all have one thing in common – they all won premierships with Balme and Williams standing quietly in the background not too fussed about who got the credit for it all.
At West Coast, while the current focus is strongly on who gets to be coach, the question of who gets put around that coach may be even more important.
The Eagles have already lost Matthew Knights from the coaching panel and there are expected to be further changes.
Pyke this week said he was unsure as to how many changes the Eagles would end up making to their coaching staff.
“We have got a number on contract and a few off contract and obviously a senior coach to come in,” he said.
Schofield, still believed to be in the mix, has a contract to stay at the club next season in an assistant’s role but may not wish to stay should he be overlooked for the senior position.
“It is going to be a conversation we would have to have,” Pyke conceded. “There is always a chance but it depends on how it all ends up and who ends up getting it if not Jarrad.”
Another factor in Hinkley’s favour – for some role if not the senior coaching job – is that player development has been a perceived weakness at West Coast for several seasons now.
Hinkley would not just be a valuable voice either in the coaches box or the dugout on match day but also how youngsters might best be steered over the early part of their careers.
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