Josh Carr (left) is earmarked to take over from Ken Hinkley (right) as Port Adelaide coach in 2026. Pictures: GETTY IMAGES
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say in the classics.
And, with each passing week, it’s a truism that seems increasingly applicable to Port Adelaide and their controversial coaching handover.
The Power announced in February that this season would be Ken Hinkley’s 13th and final in charge, before handing over the reins to Josh Carr next year.
It was a massive gamble taken, given the success rate of succession plans in recent times that don’t involve Paul Roos.
Even the one featuring Mick Malthouse and Nathan Buckley at Collingwood, which was arguably the catalyst for a flag and two grand finals, ended in acrimony, let alone the Alastair Clarkson-Sam Mitchell arrangement at Hawthorn which lasted little over three weeks.
So to say it was a bold move by Port Adelaide, in terms of the impact it would have on its 2025 prospects, would be an understatement.
It was only going to go one of two ways: the players would galvanise behind their long-time coach and make one last charge at an elusive premiership after multiple near-misses; or the players would adopt the mentality of treading water for a year, knowing that Hinkley would be departing at season’s end.
And unfortunately for the Power, it appears as though the latter option has come to fruition, much like Essendon in 2020 as John Worsfold was preparing to transition responsibilities over to Ben Rutten.
There are so many pitfalls a club risks opening itself up to heading into a season with a finite end date on the incumbent coach’s reign, such as confusion caused by mixed messaging from the future coach and diminished motivation from the playing group, knowing the season has essentially become a “gap year”.
It appears as though the Power have fallen into the second category. Their effort levels this year have been alarmingly non-existent far too often, and given this is a side that finished in the top four yet again last year, it’s hard not to think that the sense of purgatory caused by the handover has been a strong contributing factor.
Not for the first time this year the Power turned up their toes in the second half on the weekend against Fremantle, on the way to copping a 49-point hammering. And the Dockers haven’t exactly been a reliable side so far this season, as evidenced by their current ranking of ninth on the ladder.
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The Power have also suffered upset defeats against Essendon and St Kilda, who don’t look like finals-calibre sides, but it’s the frequent smashings they’ve suffered which have been most surprising.
The Fremantle loss was just the latest in a series of shockingly heavy defeats inflicted by Collingwood (91 points), the Western Bulldogs (90) and Geelong (76).
Given those three teams are all expected to go deep into the finals, it illustrates how far off the pace the Power have fallen – the bottom four, to be precise – and 4-7 is the worst start they’ve made to a season in the Hinkley era.
It’s Port Adelaide’s complete lack of desire to keep having a crack after half-time in those massive defeats which rings the loudest alarm bells regarding the state of things at Alberton.
Against the Magpies, Bulldogs, Cats and Dockers, the Power have been outscored by a total of 229 points in the second half at an average of 57 points per game. That speaks to some very deep issues that are impacting the psyche of the team.
The Port Adelaide top brass, headed up by chairman David Koch, deserve some credit for taking the gutsy step of attempting a coaching succession plan, but with their campaign hurtling towards oblivion quicker than they expected, the time has probably come to pull the pin and bring forward the handover.
The Power have the bye this week, and when one considers the morale and output on show, installing Carr as Hinkley’s successor for Round 13 could be just the thing that revitalises and energises a rudderless and listless playing group. Perhaps something could be salvaged from this season after all in that scenario.
The move could also serve as a celebration of Hinkley’s contribution to the club given he is their longest-serving coach and guided them to four preliminary finals.
But if Port Adelaide continues to dig the heels in and persists with Hinkley until the bitter end, based on the performances that have been dished up so far, in all likelihood this year will meander along in mediocre fashion with barely a whimper, and potentially even tarnish Hinkley’s departure, given the well-publicised love-hate relationship he has with the club’s passionate fan base.
