From the Pocket: Ken Hinkley’s farewell tour ends with results clouding whether his reign was a success

Ken Hinkley arrived at Port Adelaide as a breath of fresh air for a club on life support. The players were still to recover from a grand final humiliation five years earlier. The fans had deserted the club in droves. Tarpaulins were spread over the seats where supporters should have been at home games, which only brought more attention to the Power’s woes.

“This club is in a renewal stage, there’s no doubt about that,” Hinkley said during his first press conference as Power coach in late 2012. “We know what we’ve got to do, and we know where we’ve got to go.”

In their first season under Hinkley, Port Adelaide might have been satisfied with simply earning respect. They won their first five games under their new coach, finished in the top eight for the first time in six years and stunned Collingwood in an elimination final at the MCG. The club was able to tear up the tarps as fans returned amid strong signs of progress on the field.

Port Adelaide went a step further in 2014 and reached a preliminary final. A final-term fightback fell less than a goal short as eventual premiers Hawthorn hung on in a thriller. The pain of missing out on a grand final berth could at least be dulled by results over two years suggesting that Hinkley was steering the side in the right direction, with a return to the biggest stage again on the horizon.

But the Power never did make it to the promised land under Hinkley, whose 13-year tenure will end on Friday night. They failed to even reach a decider as three more preliminary final defeats, including a crushing loss to Sydney last year, became a stain on the coach’s record. The perpetual heartbreak was enough for club power brokers to decide earlier this year that it was time to move Hinkley on, only with a season-long farewell tour still to come.

View image in fullscreen Hayden McLean celebrates during the Swans’ 2024 preliminary final win over Port Adelaide. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Six months later, Hinkley will depart the Power holding the unwanted record for the most VFL/AFL games coached without reaching a grand final. He has also coached the fourth-most games without winning a premiership. Seven finals campaigns and four preliminary finals appearances in his first 12 seasons as Power coach, were not enough for Hinkley to save his job, and will continue to cloud whether his reign can be considered a success.

The Power had their fair share of triumphs under Hinkley as they won 173 of their 296 matches with a match against Gold Coast still to play. The winning percentage of 58.5% is better than modern-day coaching greats like Alastair Clarkson and Damien Hardwick. But that pair made their better years count for more and share seven premierships, while Hinkley and the Power remained competitive but continued to fall narrowly short. The 2020 flag is perhaps the one that got away, after Port Adelaide sat on top of the ladder for the entire home-and-away season but lost a preliminary final on home turf to Richmond by a goal.

This season has turned into the Power’s worst under Hinkley, with eight wins the fewest in a single campaign. The side also suffered their four heaviest defeats across his tenure as the pressure surrounding the succession plan with Josh Carr seemed to become too much for Hinkley to bear. The usually combative coach started the year bristling at suggestions that the handover would affect him and the players, but in the past week has revealed a sense of relief that the end is near.

The Power did not achieve all that they hoped for under Hinkley and even he now concedes it is time for him to go. But the lack of silverware, or even a grand final appearance, should not mean his 13 years at the helm are considered a failure. Hinkley’s legacy at Port Adelaide is as much about rebuilding a club and reminding us that – especially in a sport where there is only one winner – there can be different versions of success.

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“Didn’t make a grand final, didn’t win one,” Hinkley said this week in his last midweek press conference as Power coach. “That’s probably what it will be. That’s the reality of football. We built the footy club up, we have done really well with lots of things – ultimately we didn’t quite get to the end.”

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