Trade secrets: How Port Adelaide list manager Jason Cripps ensures the Power avoid rebuilding while remaining competitive

Port Adelaide has always maintained it won’t ever rebuild – and it is the only club without a wooden spoon. Meet the man who’s made that possible behind the scenes.

At Alberton, the word rebuild is pretty much banned.

Port Adelaide have always been steadfast that it won’t ever go down that path, with the Power the only club in the AFL yet to receive a wooden spoon.

So, how has the Power avoided going down the route other clubs have gone down, and continued to find ways of remaining competitive in the AFL?

At the forefront of this is Jason Cripps.

You will rarely hear from him in public, the Power list manager is reluctant to do any media.

In fact, when ringing around those who know and have dealt with the former rugged St Kilda defender, the message that comes back is that he won’t like an article being written about him.

But few people at Port Adelaide are as important as the Melbourne-based Cripps.

That is definitely the view of former Power chief executive Keith Thomas.

“I have always considered Jason to be one of the most important members of the Port Adelaide management team,” he told this masthead.

“Head of list management is a complex role, and to be effective you must have the ability to not only understand the problem you’re trying to solve, but also to sell the solution in … both externally and internally.

“I think Jason is as good at it as anyone in the game.”

Port Adelaide list manager Jason Cripps in a rare media appearance. Picture: Michael Klein

Yet again Cripps, who became Port’s list manager in 2011 after a stint as an assistant coach, and the Power has featured heavily in the trade period.

A year after bringing former No. 1 draft pick Jason Horne-Francis and West Coast premiership player Willie Rioli to Alberton, the Power came away from the recent trade period with key defenders Esava Ratugolea, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher and ruckmen Ivan Soldo and Jordon Sweet.

This was despite the Power having a limited draft hand, as a result of the Horne-Francis and Rioli deal.

But when the trade deadline came, the Power had all four of its targets – at the cost of its young wingman Xavier Duursma, its future first and fourth and some other later picks.

Power footy boss Chris Davies declared the club was “really happy” with its trade period, having secured all of its targets.

So how did Cripps do it again?

Thomas said Cripps’ personality traits helped him in his role.

“No nonsense, analytical, strategic, intensely competitive, loyal, family man,” Thomas said when asked what Cripps was like as a person.

“But his greatest trait in this role is that he is pragmatic. He always thinks big, but in the end you’ve got to be able to get the deal done.”

This directive of not letting the Power bottom out, with Thomas issuing him with the task of not letting Port Adelaide fall off a cliff, has forced Cripps to think big.

Cripps pragmatic but has been forced to think big. Picture: Michael Klein.

The decision to trade Wingard to Hawthorn ended up being a masterstroke by Cripps. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“We decided after such tough years in 2010 and 2011 that Port Adelaide was not the sort of club that coped well at the bottom of the table,” Thomas said.

“At the time, the prevailing view was that to draft the best new talent you needed to go to the bottom of the table and work your way back up.

“But even then the best new talent was being allocated to the expansion clubs … so Jason and his team needed to get creative in the trade space, initially to bring in good established talent – such as (Angus) Monfries, (Charlie) Dixon and (Paddy) Ryder.

“And later to position the club better for high draft picks – (trading out) (Chad) Wingard, (Jared) Polec, (Dougal) Howard and (Peter) Ladhams – when the draft was less compromised. “This is where the sell part of Jason’s job is important because trading out really good players to position the club to pick up young players that no-one has ever heard of is always met with resistance.”

Thomas revealed that he himself had resistance to trading out the two-time All-Australian and 2013 John Cahill Medallist Wingard – which was part of the now famous off-season that eventually netted the Power stars Connor Rozee and Zak Butters, as well as Duursma in the highly touted 2018 Draft, on top of important defender Ryan Burton from Hawthorn.

It was a bold move by Cripps, and the Power’s national recruiting manager Geoff Parker, but they hit the jackpot.

“I didn’t like the idea of trading out Chad in particular,” Thomas said.

“We had many, many conversations about that decision. In the end, Jason was convinced that he could improve our position long term.

“In such a scenario, it’s the coach that has the most to lose because he is being asked to accept the idea that we may have to go backwards to go forward. This is where the trust between coach, football manager and list manager is so critical … they are big calls.”

Thomas said Cripps was able to come up with a plan that convinced the key figures at Port to embrace the potentially risky move.

“You must be able to think strategically … beyond the year in front of you,” he said.

“And you must be able to build a plan capable of inspiring the decision makers to act decisively.”

Connor Rozee and Zak Butters have becomes stars for the Power. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

While he does his best work behind the scenes and is reluctant to do any media, Cripps did share some of his insights on Power premiership captain Warren Tredrea’s The Big Deal podcast last year.

Revealing that during the season he can be watching up to 10 games across the AFL, state leagues and the Talent League on any weekend, Cripps said there was one key aspect to his role.

“One thing I have learnt in this role is that information is king,” he said.

“You need to be across what is happening at other clubs and your best source of information is from player managers.

“So I spent a lot of time strengthening those relationships and making sure we have the best information.”

Some of those relationships with other clubs might have been tested as the Power went to the wire, the Ratugolea and Zerk-Thatcher deals in particular.

But as what has made him a popular and highly respected figure among list managers, Cripps dug in for his club to get the best deal.

“Our philosophy and my philosophy has always been to try and be realistic, we don’t look for big wins and we don’t worry about the optics of a specific trade,” he told Tredrea.

“Are we winning or are we losing, who knows? You might think you are winning but in five years it is a disaster or at the time it looks like it is a loss but in five years it is a significant win.

“So we don’t get caught up in are we winning or are we losing, what does it look like? We just go in with what our clear objectives are.”

“We put our value on what it should be, so the haggling of later picks, ego? Yes. Some clubs like what it looks like on paper where they can look like they are winning.

“But sometimes the swapping of later picks are real for other deals to be done, there are draft picks for where you may see players in the draft so there are reasons why clubs are haggling over those later picks.”

Cripps with Power senior coach Ken Hinkley at Alberton at the end of the 2023 season. Picture: Kelly Barnes

In 2015 Cripps, then 38-years-old, survived a major heart scare when he had a heart attack while on a run in Perth along with some Port Adelaide recruiters.

Cripps, who nearly died after the massive heart attack with a doctor who was passing nearby saying he had lost his pulse, was rushed to hospital and spent three days in a coma in intensive care.

Cripps said his health was “what it was before the heart issue in Perth”.

“I try and look after myself. I love training still,” he said.

“I was pretty anal in terms of my diet previously when I was playing and post playing and I have probably relaxed a bit as I’ve gotten older.

“But I am conscious of having a healthy diet and remain as fit as possible, but with health issues you can be really fit and something pops up you don’t know.

“I just still approach every day as I did previously. I have three teenage children now so in terms of work/life balance it is probably work and then the remaining time is filled up with them.

“That is me in a nutshell.”

Originally published as Trade secrets: How Port Adelaide list manager Jason Cripps ensures the Power avoid rebuilding while remaining competitive