Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley in one of his most revealing interviews

Even in the off season, Ken Hinkley doesn’t switch off from the game he loves. His kids even had to plan their weddings around footy. He opens up on how he’s survived a decade in the job.

Ken Hinkley is at home with his family glued to the TV as the Western Bulldogs try to stay in touch against Melbourne in Perth. The Port Adelaide coach is envious – again.

“Anyone who says they don’t (watch the grand final), I don’t know whether they’re telling the truth,” Hinkley tells News Corp.

“I want to be part of it, all the Port Adelaide people want to be a part of it.

“I get envious every time that you’re not there.

“When you get closer, it’s even harder to watch.”

Hinkley’s side is not at Perth Stadium because it has been eliminated from the premiership race a fortnight earlier.

The Power had been heavy favourites heading into its second consecutive home preliminary final, but the Bulldogs smashed it by 71 points.

Port Adelaide captain Tom Jonas has since spoken about rewatching the match in full for closure. Not Hinkley.

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Ken Hinkley speaks to the Port Adelaide players in Round 22 2021.

When the 55-year-old revisits it at home immediately after the disappointing result, he “

trying to solve the problems and trying to find a solution”.

“You don’t always find it there and then, and straight away,” he says.

“We say we get closure but we don’t get closure – we go to work to get better.

“It will make us stronger, make us more resilient and we have to be ready for the next opportunity.”

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Hinkley insists he does not truly switch off from football, even during the off-season.

“I might pretend I do, I don’t think I do,” he says.

“I’m always looking for a little margin that can help us achieve the ultimate because that’s what we set out to do and we’re still looking to get there.”

One of those small gains has also helped him stop to smell the roses.

As the Power and rival clubs have sought to tap into building team connection in recent years, Hinkley has been reading about gratitude, including over summer.

Gratitude helps people to focus on positive things happening in their lives each day.

“Typically we’re all reading and we’re looking for a little secret or a little recipe that can help us overcome some of our challenges, that’s no different for me,” he says.

“I’ve spent some time in gratitude and what it means to reflect and look at what’s good that’s going on, plus what the challenges are coming in front of you.

“It’s something that I’ve been strong on for three or four years now and continually look for and want to learn more about.

“It reminds you what’s fundamentally really important to me and to me being a good coach.”

LIFE OFF THE FIELD

Hinkley had plenty to be grateful for during the off-season.

He and his wife Donna welcomed their second grandchild, Addison.

Two of their children, Bec and Jordan, got married.

Bec’s wedding was in Hamilton Island after coronavirus forced a 12-month wait.

Jordan tied the knot near Hahndorf in a ceremony that had to be postponed by a fortnight and reduced in numbers due to Covid restrictions.

The timing of both weddings was important.

“We’re a footy family so we know that there’s nothing that can be happening between February and the end of September because we’re very hopeful and enthusiastic about our club and our team, and what we can achieve,” the former Geelong star says.

Hinkley may not switch off from football but these special days with family take his mind elsewhere, at least temporarily.

“There’s not many things that can get in the way with footy for me, but that’s the one thing that might be able to distract me from footy for a little bit – and it’s a little bit,” he says.

“Last year was a pretty challenging finish to the year – it was a pretty good year until the finish – but it was nice to sit away from it for a little bit and just enjoy my family and some of the things that you don’t often get to do as a father, see two of your children get married then have another grandchild come along.

“It makes you come back to that very point of what we’re lucky to do and while we’re fundamentally grateful for the opportunities that we get.”

Ken Hinkley, senior coach of the Power

DECADE ON THE JOB

Hinkley is also appreciative to be entering his 10th season as the Power’s coach.

Hired at the end of 2012 and in charge for 262 matches, Hinkley is the club’s second-longest serving AFL mentor.

He sits fourth for total games among the league’s 2022 coaching crop and ranks 43rd all-time.

Only 12 of those ahead of him on the list are also without premierships.

There are just three – Bill Stephen, Terry Wallace and Brad Scott – whose senior coaching CVs do not include a grand final appearance.

Hinkley says growing as a coach and being at a football club that “understands the importance of stability and building” have been instrumental to his longevity.

“It’s a tough job, it’s a tough industry,” he says.

“I think I wouldn’t have been able to survive in the game if I hadn’t had the opportunity to change.

“Some of the stuff I’ve been able to do in the last few years certainly helped me evolve as a coach and keep me very much a today coach.”

The latest preliminary final loss has only fuelled Hinkley, who says he has never felt more energetic and excited since arriving at Alberton from the Gold Coast a decade ago.

“We’ve been through a bit over the time and ultimately we haven’t been able to be successful at the end of the season,” he says.

“You keep stoking the fire as best you can and if you stop wanting to do that, and stop wanting to chase it, it’s time to go.”

Few would doubt Hinkley’s passion.

But his inability to at least make a flag decider from back-to-back home preliminary finals has raised doubts outside the club about his coaching and led to external pressure building again.

Hinkley says living in Adelaide means you cannot avoid what is being written or said about himself and the team.

“You shouldn’t want to hide from it,” he says.

Ken Hinkley watches Port Adelaide training in March 2022, alongside Paul Stewart.

“You listen to opinions, you don’t have to agree or disagree with them and buy into whether they’re right or wrong.

“You’ve got to be one of the top four clubs in the competition to be able to get to those opportunities but ultimately, they’re other people’s opinions.”

Hinkley refused to judge the season after the preliminary final loss, saying it was not the right time.

Six months on, he says there was a lot of good that came out of 2022 “but ultimately we didn’t get to where we wanted to go”.

“(The preliminary final) was unusual for us – we had a really consistent season,” he says.

“It wasn’t just the players who weren’t quite right on the night, the preparation may not have been on reflection.

“I’m not going to sit here and be stupid and pig-headed and say ‘I was absolutely perfect’ because the result would suggest otherwise.

“We put ourselves in a great position to at least make a grand final and who knows what happens, but we didn’t get there.

“So yes, we looked and we search, and we find, and adjust.”

At first glance, Port Adelaide has merely tweaked its football program and list from last year.

Forward Jeremy Finlayson arrived from GWS, ruckman Peter Ladhams departed to Sydney, veteran Hamish Hartlett was axed, senior assistant Michael Voss took on the top job at Carlton and another group of draftees, led this year by Victorian half-back/wingman Josh Sinn, joined.

Hinkley instead calls the off-season change significant.

He points to the club’s former sports science boss Stuart Graham taking over from Ian McKeown as head of high-performance, Luke Kelly coming from the Giants as a midfield development coach, Chad Cornes stepping up to oversee the defence and on-ball mentor Jarrad Schofield exiting to West Coast.

Then there is the return of ex-captain Dom Cassisi, who will fill a role in the connection space that Voss has been prominent in.

“Dom’s been a great leader of this club and it’s an opportunity for him to come back in a little way and help us out,” Hinkley says.

Zac Butters, left, speaks to Ryan Burton at Port Adelaide training. Picture: Brenton Edwards

On the field, the Power has moved Zak Butters into the midfield full-time, Dan Houston onto a wing and will give more on-ball opportunities to the likes of Connor Rozee, Jackson Mead and Miles Bergman.

It is not merely in response to the preliminary final, but part of a three-year plan.

“This is a midfield group with a Brownlow medallist, they’ve had an amazing Travis Boak in it at 34 years of age, this is not … a terrible midfield group,” Hinkley says.

“But this is a group that we needed to grow and get bigger and share the load because we were probably too reliant on not enough.”

The intention was to do so last season but Butters, Rozee, Duursma and Mead were all sidelined with injuries.

“So to achieve where we got to at the end of our home-and-away season was a great effort, but it’s not the EPL, we don’t want to be top of the ladder at the end of the home-and-away season,” he says.

“We want to be more than that.”

While some coaches and clubs hose down expectations, Hinkley and the Power have not shied away from talking up theirs.

In 2020, Hinkley told the football world: “look out, we’re coming”.

Before last season, he spruiked “we’re ready to win” and a month later the club released its “Chasing Greatness” plan, targeting three premierships in five years.

Now Hinkley wants to remind everyone “we’re still here”.

And that the ambition at Alberton remains the same – to win the flag.

For now, though, he is focused on today.

“We’ve got to stay here and stay eyes on the job and give ourselves another chance,” he says.

Hinkley cannot be certain if mental scars will linger from last year’s preliminary final but does not think so based on what he has seen from the team since.

One thing is for sure, he does not want to watch this year’s grand final at home again.

Originally published as Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley in one of his most revealing interviews