Opinion Sack Hinkley 11 - Gentlemen, this is democracy manifest

[Ilias M]

This is such surface-level analysis from Bartel, he probably didn’t even watch the game but saw the post-game tears and concluded “they did it for Kenny”.

It was an uninspiring performance and hardly one that suggested the players were rallying to the cause of their coach. If Jack Higgins wasn’t so *******, Saints win and Ken might be gone today.

Moreover, Rozee produced some very non-committal, ambiguous commentary on Ken post-game. Also, while a player refusing to do media when asked last week could mean many things, obviously the point of it would have been to back the coach publicly. And they said no.

So I don’t think it’s all happy families down there.

I'm in the first belief that Butters will move on when he Abe to do so, I don't buy his "I love Ken talk" and yes after the game his words were not we heard before

 

[Bump Bailey]

A case of stockholm syndrome.

King oath. Most of our boys have only ever played under the one coach. They don’t know how good they could have it.

 

[sobrave]

I'm in the first belief that Butters will move on when he Abe to do so, I don't buy his "I love Ken talk" and yes after the game his words were not we heard before

The second a new coach is appointed we'll have the players trotted out in the media saying how amazing it is to have Joe blogs coaching us and how he's freshened the place up. Ken will be forgotten instantly. When has that not been the case with AFL coaches? Ever?

 

[rogerjames]

Should get little packets of tissues and toss them to Ken when he’s on the bench.

I can’t believe he actually cried.

This is not my Port Adelaide.

No wonder the team is mentally weak and fragile in big games and set shots.

Ken would be a fantastic aus kick coach. Hurry up Jordan and have some grandkids ffs.

You can't believe he cried probs means you haven't been watching closely enough.

Heck me, that's from 6 years ago and nothing's changed.

Choco must be wondering what bizarro-world he has stumbled upon.

Ford Fairline, I hope you're firing up against the Dogs

 

[rogerjames]

View attachment 2036016View attachment 2036017

SACK HINKLEY. CON ARTIST.

 

[rogerjames]

But all our players are his sons

Give us a big Cuddles Daddy

 

[Cheesey Mac]

His days are numbered, but realistically, barring another catastrophic loss in the same manner as the Brisbane game I don't reckon we'll see the back of him until after the Carlton game at the earliest, potentially the Sydney game.

If we win one of the next 3 games (say the Richmond game) we're going to be 10-8 and still in touch with the top 8, lose all 3 and we're 9-9 going into Carlton away. After the Carlton game we'll be games and percentage outside and that's where the walls will really close in. Lose to the Swans at home the week after that and its done (if he hasn't walked sooner), with a weak percentage we aren't making the 8 from there and there's nothing the club or its media mouthpieces can really fall back on to argue for keeping him.

The current administration are weak, shit-scared of the media painting them as running poor Ken out of town, and will avoid accountability for as long as they can. They aren't kicking him out until finals are a mathematical impossibility, they're certainly not going to sack him while the team has a positive win-loss record.

In an ideal world he's sacked tonight for the anaemic performance yesterday, along with the 3 matches of shit before yesterday and the 12 years of underperformance before that... but I'm not getting my hopes up that it'll be soon. We've seen him weasel out of situations that other coaches wouldn't have survived too often.

It's already a wasted season, but the longer he remains the more wasted it becomes, if he at least stepped aside we could give Carr the caretaker job and at least see him in action before going through the full recruitment process.

 

[chachi11]

It's already a wasted season, but the longer he remains the more wasted it becomes, if he at least stepped aside we could give Carr the caretaker job and at least see him in action before going through the full recruitment process.

Lol...no chance.

 

[Sharaz Jek]

Just a reminder of this "what if" article by Caro in 2022 in which she suggests that both parties would have been better serviced if Ken had taken up the Gold Coast offer in 2017.

Once again we were left with a "poor Ken" narrative, which portrays him less as a professional coach hired to meet certain metrics but as a poor martyr who will be vindicated by history.

Why Hinkley should have entertained a move to the Suns

To suggest Ken Hinkley and his team must turn things around in a fortnight or else came over as a hollow threat. The coach has been undermined again.

www.theage.com.au

The sliding doors moment for Ken Hinkley came in late 2017 after Port Adelaide drew their sudden-death final against West Coast but lost the game in extra time, and the club’s shattered president David Koch issued a pointed public broadside which reflected poorly on the coach and his team.

By Koch’s standards this was nothing new but for Hinkley and his family, still raw from the dramatic season’s exit and the compounding wrath from the Port supporter base, it felt like the final straw.

The Suns simultaneously appeared well down the path of replacing the sacked Rodney Eade with Stuart Dew

Stuart Dew

Age

44

Ht

183cm

Wt

99kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.1

3star

K

9.1

4star

HB

4.0

3star

M

2.9

3star

T

1.7

4star

No current season stats available

D

12.2

3star

K

9.0

4star

HB

3.2

3star

M

2.8

3star

T

1.8

4star

but that club’s boss Mark Evans saw an opportunity and made the call to Gold Coast’s foundation senior assistant, sensing that life in Adelaide had become almost untenable for the Hinkleys. Hinkley had lost his best friend Peter Hubbard over the pre-season, a man he referred to as his “second wife” and whose views on Koch and were occasionally unprintable.

It was later suggested that Hinkley and his manager Peter Blucher had used the Gold Coast offer as payback leverage with Port, but there is no doubt that Gold Coast came close to securing Hinkley that year despite him being contracted and despite Port finishing one game outside the top four with 14 wins that year.

What followed was a robust meeting called at Hinkley’s house involving Koch and his then CEO Keith Thomas in which Hinkley’s wife Donna delivered a full and frank assessment of just how unbearable living in a football-obsessed two-team town could become for a senior AFL coach and his family, particularly for so-called “outsiders”.

The result saw the already contracted Hinkley sign a three-year extension - with performance clauses - and the tantalising prospect of a fresh start for both him and Gold Coast taken off the table, although a wistfulness for grasses greener for both parties still lingers..

The mixed fortunes that have dogged Hinkley since - the failed quick fix of 2018 followed by the successful influx of young talent in 2019 and a rebuilt football program overseen by Hinkley and his football lieutenant Chris Davies - saw Port come so close in 2020 and finish top four again last year, only to be humiliated by the Western Bulldogs in yet another losing preliminary final.

To be brutal, some big calls have failed, notably the faith he showed in Charlie Dixon

22

Charlie Dixon

Age

33

Ht

200cm

Wt

110kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.7

3star

K

6.9

3star

HB

4.7

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.2

4star

G

1.6

5star

D

10.5

3star

K

7.0

3star

HB

3.5

2star

M

5.0

5star

T

1.5

2star

G

2.5

5star

D

8.2

2star

K

4.4

2star

HB

3.8

3star

M

2.0

3star

T

1.8

4star

G

0.8

4star

to present consistently as a dominant forward in big games.

Surely, now would have been the ideal occasion for the two parties to shake hands and accept that one decade had seen Hinkley lift Port Adelaide out of the mire back to respectability despite having failed to help deliver the ultimate.

Particularly when Koch chose this week to again publicly threaten Hinkley’s job and his off-field football team, in a clumsy attempt to appease his supporter base which appears to have increasingly turned on Hinkley from the start of the season.

No one is suggesting Koch has no right to criticise his team’s performance. Port might have lost seven games by less than two goals this season, but the side has under-delivered in what could prove the team’s worst finish under Hinkley. But to suggest Hinkley and his team must turn things around in a fortnight or else came over as a hollow threat.

Just as the club backflipped after one season on Hinkley’s dual captaincy strategy due to supporter backlash, the coach has been undermined again to satisfy one of the more demanding fan bases in football. This was not a show of strength by Koch and, in fact, by the end of the week his resolve looked positively flimsy.

Hinkley took a pay cut when his contract was extended by two years at the start of 2021 and as a result refused to entertain the prospect of any performance clauses. The club cannot afford to pay him out, and he has a watertight deal until the end of next season.

Koch backtracked on Thursday but still pointed out that Hinkley had failed to coach Port to a grand final. Back in early 2016 when Richmond backed Damien Hardwick with a contract extension, president Peggy O’Neal’s blunt assessment was that the club looked around and saw no one better than the incumbent, and when the Tigers’ season capitulated her firm decision to back Hardwick has become a template for situations like Port’s current predicament.

What is surprising is that no club has put out the feelers for Hinkley in recent days despite his winning record. North Melbourne have thrown their entire weight behind Alastair Clarkson and will look no further unless that bid fails, while GWS have stuck to a process in which Clarkson remains their preferred target. The Giants have said they will not approach a contracted coach, but surely Koch’s comments on Monday opened the door.

So, barring a late play, Hinkley stays at Port with the most likely movement at Alberton to see assistant coach Brett Montgomery

Brett Montgomery

Age

51

Ht

180cm

Wt

83kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.3

4star

K

8.9

3star

HB

6.4

4star

M

5.8

5star

T

1.4

3star

No current season stats available

D

11.6

3star

K

8.8

4star

HB

2.8

3star

M

4.6

5star

T

1.2

3star

replaced. Football boss Davies has refused to entertain offers, including one from North, and has maintained his faith in Hinkley and their program.

But this is not the ideal starting point upon which to build season 2023. An uneasy president, a coach under pressure to deliver from round one or else suffer the ignominy of the weekly sacking debate, and a playing group and football department that knows it.

In another country, in a different football competition, Ken Hinkley would be seen as a winning coach. In Australia and in the town of Adelaide he is a coach under pressure. Nothing will change in that department unless he can deliver a top-four finish next season.

No disrespect to Dew or the superb Port team which had the misfortune to come up against one-last-shot champion Richmond in the preliminary final of 2020, but perhaps Hinkley should have walked away at the end of 2017 and coached the Suns.

 

[Sewer de Lance]

I'm not sure why some of you have bought into the "shit list" nonsense.

We're badly coached and players have gone backwards. That doesn't mean the talent isn't there.

Bergman - gone backwards. Why? Played out of position on the wing, because we traded our actual winger because he wasn't one of donuts chosen few.

Burton - a real coach wouldn't have let him constantly put in weak as piss performances. He would have either had to lift his game or **** off ages ago.

Williams - very solid last year until ken wrecked his confidence.

Aliir - back structure is all wrong, so of course aliir looks rubbish. All Australian calibre player.

Soldo - the dickhead brought him back injured and made his injury worse.

Rozee - the dickhead brought him back injured and made his injury worse.

McEntee - is just the worst player in the AFL and has been played almost every week, bringing us down. Just shouldn't be playing. Anyone would be better. Anyone.

Drew - no idea what Ken's done to him but gone backwards.

Marshall - who knows.

Wines - ken has no real idea what to do with him. Can still play (see Geelong game) but has become a nothing player.

I think your assessment is 100% on the money. We might not have a Premiership list, but we sure as hell have a group of players that could easily push for Top 4 if coached right.

Far too many players have either regressed, look disinterested, appear unfit, or are bereft of confidence. This is a leadership issue which is driven by the Senior Coach.

At the end of the day, Ken doesn’t appoint himself, that’s left to the key decision makers of the club who have been nothing short of horrendous.

 

[fpm84]

Nauseating montage on AFL360 now, piano rendition of NTUA and slow mo of Kenny crying, ‘they did it for Ken.’

 

[finbarr]

Does he still have the players? A question depending on which faction of the playing list you speak to.

I spoke with a former player at a wedding back in 2020 (pre-covid) and he told me the group was divided then, but generally got along with each other depending on which side of the 'Hinkley Faction' you sat. However after recently speaking with said ex player again, the divide is now where players actively don't speak to other players if they don't have to. It is also very clear which players fall into this faction with the current playing list and where Daddy and his interests lie.

For the rest of the list, face-time with the emperor is limited and feedback even more so. Everything is 'delegated' (i.e. Ken can't be assed to do it so someone else has to) through the assistants and dev coaches.

He is a hypocrite, he is lazy and he is bereft of any sense to read a room but will cling on for dear life to that pay cheque.

I wish nothing but misery on the coach and his enablers. Do not under-estimate the influence of Chad Cornes on this situation either. Has always actively promoted division in the ranks. Just have a look at how Wingard's form and enjoyment in the game nose-dived when this muscle-bound show pony rocked up twerking his dancing pectorals. And he learned it from Choco.

 

[fpm84]

‘It gave us a glimpse of what it looks like to have your job casually and callously thrown around in the public forum, a coach giving his whole heart and soul to it.

Kenny’s mantra is to never, ever give up. He is a good and loyal man in a really tough spot. This throws shame on those who boo him and are desperate to throw him out of a job that means so much to him.’

- Gerard Whateley, AFL360, 1/7.

 

[Port01]

I feel zero guilt in wanting Ken fired
I coach u13's and dont even get paid and still get questioned!

 

[dirty2]

I feel zero guilt in wanting Ken fired
I coach u13's and dont even get paid and still get questioned!

Sack #port01!!!!!

 

[elbarton]

‘It gave us a glimpse of what it looks like to have your job casually and callously thrown around in the public forum, a coach giving his whole heart and soul to it.

Kenny’s mantra is to never, ever give up. He is a good and loyal man in a really tough spot. This throws shame on those who boo him and are desperate to throw him out of a job that means so much to him.’

- Gerard Whateley, AFL360, 1/7.

Every coach who has ever been sacked has experienced this anxiety. But it’s literally the end times if poor old Kenny faces some scrutiny. **** me Gerard is the biggest cuck alive

 

[Sharaz Jek]

‘It gave us a glimpse of what it looks like to have your job casually and callously thrown around in the public forum, a coach giving his whole heart and soul to it.

Kenny’s mantra is to never, ever give up. He is a good and loyal man in a really tough spot. This throws shame on those who boo him and are desperate to throw him out of a job that means so much to him.’

- Gerard Whateley, AFL360, 1/7.

Just a reminder that Slobbo hounded "poor old Ben" Rutten out of Essendon because he was "soft".

Every week, Slobbo was demanding an independent investigation into Essendon's performance and marveled it was "about bloody time" that the board sack the coach.

"Then the players say poor old Ben. Poor old Ben. Anyway, Ben's gone. Everyone feels sorry for him, but jeez!"
- Slobbo


Whateley, of course, sat there like a stunned mullet for months.

 

[Launchpad McQuack]

Lol...no chance.

 

[NuriootpaTigers]

I'm not sure why some of you have bought into the "shit list" nonsense.

We're badly coached and players have gone backwards. That doesn't mean the talent isn't there.

Bergman - gone backwards. Why? Played out of position on the wing, because we traded our actual winger because he wasn't one of donuts chosen few.

Burton - a real coach wouldn't have let him constantly put in weak as piss performances. He would have either had to lift his game or **** off ages ago.

Williams - very solid last year until ken wrecked his confidence.

Aliir - back structure is all wrong, so of course aliir looks rubbish. All Australian calibre player.

Soldo - the dickhead brought him back injured and made his injury worse.

Rozee - the dickhead brought him back injured and made his injury worse.

McEntee - is just the worst player in the AFL and has been played almost every week, bringing us down. Just shouldn't be playing. Anyone would be better. Anyone.

Drew - no idea what Ken's done to him but gone backwards.

Marshall - who knows.

Wines - ken has no real idea what to do with him. Can still play (see Geelong game) but has become a nothing player.

The game plan is the biggest issue.

Relies on bombing it in long from the centre clearances and locking it in for as long as possible until we scrum a goal from stoppage or until we’re forced to kick to a pocket as there’s no space in our leading lanes with everyone crammed in there.

It causes our midfield to not have any room to move, breathe, or think, and are constantly under pressure forced into frantic football which diminishes our skills but also cooks our players aerobically.

It gives forwards like Marshall and Georgiades no room to play their natural lead up style of play they have as more athletic key forwards as the plan is designed to be bombed on Dixon’s head and hope he takes a mark 1 out of every 20 entries.

And then it leaves our defenders horribly exposed now that opposition teams have figured out you just have to play the Collingwood style slingshot from defense against us and we can’t stop teams going the other way.

All of this coupled with the fact there is no fear of retribution coming from Uncle Ken who is best mates with most of the players so there’s no pressure to perform.

Then you’ve probably got another group of players who are so sick of playing this way knowing that it doesn’t work and you just lose against the best sides in the comp that they’ve just given up trying.

I’d say all of this is a reasonable explanation for players going backwards.

 

[glitch01]

‘It gave us a glimpse of what it looks like to have your job casually and callously thrown around in the public forum, a coach giving his whole heart and soul to it.

Kenny’s mantra is to never, ever give up. He is a good and loyal man in a really tough spot. This throws shame on those who boo him and are desperate to throw him out of a job that means so much to him.’

- Gerard Whateley, AFL360, 1/7.

This truly does my head in.

Let's just say for arguments sake that Gerard Whately's radio/TV gig dipped in the ratings over 12 consecutive ratings periods.
His radio station exists to get ratings, get advertising revenue etc. ie succeed.
No doubt he loves and wants his job.....

What would the radio/TV station do......?

His almost fawning admiration of "Kenny" is mind boggling.

 

[Sharaz Jek]

‘It gave us a glimpse of what it looks like to have your job casually and callously thrown around in the public forum, a coach giving his whole heart and soul to it.

Kenny’s mantra is to never, ever give up. He is a good and loyal man in a really tough spot. This throws shame on those who boo him and are desperate to throw him out of a job that means so much to him.’

- Gerard Whateley, AFL360, 1/7.

Why Hinkley should have entertained a move to the Suns

To suggest Ken Hinkley and his team must turn things around in a fortnight or else came over as a hollow threat. The coach has been undermined again.

www.theage.com.au

"Hinkley and his manager Peter Blucher had used the Gold Coast offer as payback leverage with Port"

 

[Cam1870]

I wish nothing but misery on the coach and his enablers. Do not under-estimate the influence of Chad Cornes on this situation either.......And he learned it from Choco.

Think chadbro learned it from Studley. Studley's the best of the 3 and he's still an absolute campaigner

 

[TeeKray]

I'm not sure why some of you have bought into the "shit list" nonsense.

Nobody said the list is shit but it's very difficult to look at a key forward trio of Lord/Georgiades/Marshall and a key back trio of Aliir/Zerk-Thatcher/Ratugolea, as well as a ruck division of honest toilers, and see 'premiership'.

People chronically underrate the significance of losing peak Jonas and the effective losses of Dixon and McKenzie. The first two were All Australian level players at their best and I'd argue McKenzie was too albeit one of the most underrated players in the competition so never actually in that discussion.

The replacements are nowhere near as good and it shows, especially in the forward line with 'Hot Toddy' bordering on being an embarrassment for an $800k key forward and the other two very much still developing.

 

[ElectricG]

Nobody said the list is shit but it's very difficult to look at a key forward trio of Lord/Georgiades/Marshall and a key back trio of Aliir/Zerk-Thatcher/Ratugolea, as well as a ruck division of honest toilers, and see 'premiership'.

People chronically underrate the significance of losing peak Jonas and the effective losses of Dixon and McKenzie. The first two were All Australian level players at their best and I'd argue McKenzie was too albeit one of the most underrated players in the competition so never actually in that discussion.

The replacements are nowhere near as good and it shows, especially in the forward line with 'Hot Toddy' bordering on being an embarrassment for an $800k key forward and the other two very much still developing.

I take your point but why is everyone on 800k

 

[rumoursofwinter]

Its all about hinkley wants to be the coach. There's nothing about the club needs the best coach. It's perverse. I'd argue that hinkley having the job isn't in his best interests, but that isn't the point. Why is everyone so invested in the best interests of a very rich uneducated individual who doesn't like pressure or scrutiny more important than than the best interests of the club and everyone invested in the club.