Josh Carr says Warren Tredrea is always welcome at Port Adelaide, defends 2025 succession plan
Warren Tredrea’s former premiership teammate and new Power coach Josh Carr is emphatic the ‘legend of the footy club’ is welcome back despite being axed from the board.
Port Adelaide senior coach Josh Carr says club great Warren Tredrea will always be welcome at the club despite the club’s decision to axe him from the board
The Power kicked off its only AFL premiership captain as a director last week after a months’ long investigation into comments that were made by a guest on his Ballsy podcast in May.
The Power said the decision came after Tredrea “refused to agree” with a “public apology request to close out the matter” after it was claimed comments from British army veteran A.J. Roberts amplified far-right anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
Carr – a 2004 premiership teammate of Tredrea – said he hadn’t been kicked out of the club entirely.
“Nothing changes for what ‘Tredders’ is to our footy club, he is a past player, he is a legend of the footy club,” he said.
“He is one of the greatest players I’ve ever played with and one of the greatest in the AFL era.
“He has not been kicked out of the footy club, he is off the board for the reasons about what is best for our footy club and the board made that decision.”
Tredrea has said he will be “making further and fuller statements” in the future he was “concerned about the actions taken by a number of important people at our club which have led to my dismissal”.
Power chief executive Matthew Richardson said he was confident any fallout from this would not be a distraction.
“It is a governance matter that the board have addressed, if you are a director of an officer of the club you have a responsibility to act in the best interest of the club and for our members at all times,” he said.
“There is a lot of positivity around our club at the moment, we are about what is the best for our club.
“The board did afford Warren numerous opportunities to resolve the matter and unfortunately that got to a point where that wasn’t possible so the board needed to act.
“It is not a distraction, we know what we need to do in 2026 to be better.
“That is our focus.”
Tredrea, the Power’s all-time leading goalkicker, joined the board as one of two member-elected directors in February last year.
Richardson said his successor would also be elected by members.
And when asked if there has been a fan backlash to the call, Richardson said;
“There is too much positivity around our footy club at the moment. I think reasonable people understand what the issue is.
“Our responsibility is to act in the best interests of the club and the board have done that.”
SEVEN KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE CARR-RUTTEN-RICHARDSON PRESSER
PERSONAL GROWTH KEY FOR RUTTEN
Personal growth was behind Rutten’s decision to go for the footy boss role.
The appointment of Rutten as the successor to Chris Davies caught plenty by surprise.
He revealed the process that led him to Alberton played out over three to four weeks and the ability to grow in the role stood.
“Personally I think it is a great opportunity for me to learn and grow, from my time as a player and as a coach I feel like I have a great understanding of performing teams and all the different elements that drive performance and success,” he said.
“So I see this as a great role to support the senior coach and the broader program to ultimately create a premiership-winning program.”
HEAD COACHING EXPERIENCE TO ASSIST CARR
Rutten believes that the senior coaching experience of him at Essendon and Stuart Dew at Gold Coast can help Carr in his first year at the helm at the Power.
“I think it is something I can add to the program and to help support Josh at various stages around what might be coming up or how I thought about how to approach a specific situation,” he said.
“But also Josh is really clear on how he wants to lead the footy club, how he wants us to play and how he wants the coaching group to function.”
STRONG CULTURE A MUST
Creating a culture that if star vice-captain Zak Butters wants to leave then it is “the hardest decision” he has ever had to make is going to be how the Power looks to convince the gun midfielder that his future is at Alberton beyond 2026.
The future of Butters at the Power is something that is going to hang over Carr and Rutten throughout 2026.
Both said they would focus on the big picture to convince Butters to stay.
“Creating the environment that one they don’t want to leave but if they do leave it is the hardest decision they have ever had to make,” Carr said.
Rutten said it wasn’t just about Butters.
“He is certainly a priority for us to make Zak a long term player at the club,” he said.
“I’ve always been a strong believer in we’re not here to try and convince people to stay, we want to create an environment for people to want to stay and want to come into.
“I think that is critical and that is not just about any one player, it is about creating the best environment for all our people.”
MIDFIELD NEEDS WORK, BUT SUCCESS ISN’T TIED TO STARS
Port Adelaide has three of the most exciting midfielders in the competition – Butters, captain Connor Rozee and Jason Horne-Francis – yet it got smashed in the contest consistently this year.
There has been a view among rivals that those three can be exploited defensively at times.
Carr said they needed to play their roles for the team.
“I think the main thing I care about is what they are doing for the team,” he said.
“What their role is for the team and are they playing that. Us winning or losing is not going to depend on those three, it will depend on every player.”
NO MORE DEFENSIVE BREAKDOWNS
Carr will look to tighten up the Power defensively.
But he is stressing that is not going to result in the Power becoming a defensive team.
The Power had a down year in 2025, missing finals, and once again offence was an issue for Ken Hinkley’s side.
Now he has the keys, Carr said he had a number of ideas of how the Power can improve in 2026.
“I think there is growth in all areas of our game,” he said.
“Defensively I think we can tighten up and if you look at premiership teams they are always really strong defensively.
“Does that mean we are going to be a defensive team? Not at all.
“And if you look at the contest, it is important and we haven’t been great at the contest over the last couple of years.
“Ball movement wise I am probably one who wants a bit more balance in the way that we play.
“There has to be more than one avenue to goal, we have to score off the turnover but at the same time we have to take the contest.”
NO REGRETS OVER SUCCESSION PLAN
The Power’s succession plan from Hinkley to Carr was widely discussed in 2025, and held up as a reason for a perceived lack of effort by players in some games as Port were beaten heavily at times. Carr said the Power knew that the succession plan would be blamed if performances on the field were not great, but he had no regrets whatsoever.
“In the end we stayed strong and got through,” he said.
“There’s probably a period of four to five weeks to go where we can’t make finals and quickly the conversation was with Ken around what can we do to make the future better for our football club.
“No regrets, I’m here, I’m coaching Port Adelaide. How good is that?”
COACHING GROUP OVERHAUL TO BE LAUDED
There has been a massive overhaul off the field at Alberton this off-season, with an entirely new coaching panel under Carr, Andy Collins coming in as a director of coaching as well as other football department appointments.
They arrived at Alberton last week ahead of players returning for pre-season and did a lot of bonding.
Carr said he was happy with how it went.
“Last week we spent a lot of time connecting as a coaching group,” he said.
“There was no time spent on football, it was about getting to know each other and I feel like I have been with these people a lot longer than a few weeks.
“We finished off with a round of par 3 golf at North Adelaide on the Thursday.”
Originally published as Josh Carr says Warren Tredrea is always welcome at Port Adelaide, defends 2025 succession plan
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