Opinion Our Day in Kangaroo Court - The Real Alberton Faithful 1870-2012 versus Ken Bloody Hinkley 2013-2023 … 2025? and his Enablers

[Byrons Firen]

I agree that KT is culpable but from what I've heard, he was very circumspect about it from the beginning.
Of the three of them, he is the one who would have understood the ramifications, which makes it even worse IMO.

Hammer nail.

A simple argh... hang on guys let's think about this. As Feel said in as many words, having done it you can't unscramble the egg.

The enormity of it was lost on Koch n Ken and that says all you need to know. Their ignorance and the aggro they show when exposed

is an ugly combo. When their time is up, ya just know they'll play the victim card.

 

[Doctor Feel]

Lol I still remember KTs bizarre rant comparing the one captain tradition to wearing an old leather helmet from the 1900s or something, saying that while it's cool it's just a relic of the past and there are more effective options out there now.

 

[Duck Farmer]

It was the issue that destroyed my faith in KT.

When Hinkley came to him with the idea of co-captains KT should have knocked it on the head then and there. Instead he thought it sounded like a good idea and took it to the board who, led by Koch, approved it.

As you say, proof that all three simply don't get Port Adelaide. For Hinkley Port Adelaide is just a source of cash for him and his family and for Koch it is just a play thing that boosts his enormous ego.

Yep.

Hinkley - self-centred mercenary who will quit the state and never return to Alberton once his gig is up.

Koch - Sydney theatregoer with a retconned Port Adelaide backstory who's in it to stroke his ego.

KT - well-meaning journeyman who tried to get the culture but was wracked with insecurities due to imposter syndrome.

 

[PowerLil]

Yep.

Hinkley - self-centred mercenary who will quit the state and never return to Alberton once his gig is up.

Promise?

 

[PA88]

I still seethe that Hinkley and co believed that our season's failings would be partly resolved by having more captains and thus be adjustment number one. Not by developing multiple capable players, having competent senior coaches, competent selection committees and competent board, but by the number of captain armbands you distribute.

 

[Hammer#8]

Our president was clowning himself on live TV around the time he took the reigns, should've seen this coming

 

[Lockhart Road]

Koch: “You’ve made me look a dill. Co-captains!? Where’d you dig that one up? How’d you suck me in on that one?”

KBH: “It came from you, from your example. Sunrise. You’re Co-host. You’re not Host. And you can’t sing for sh*t.”

Koch: “Will you stop looking at the dog races on your phone!”

 

[Igavemyloveachicken]

I still seethe that Hinkley and co believed that our season's failings would be partly resolved by having more captains and thus be adjustment number one. Not by developing multiple capable players, having competent senior coaches, competent selection committees and competent board, but by the number of captain armbands you distribute.

Pissed away like everything else that remotely resembles Port Adelaide, I've never hated a coach until this campaigner, please f##k off.

 

[Steve Dore]

I still seethe that Hinkley and co believed that our season's failings would be partly resolved by having more captains and thus be adjustment number one. Not by developing multiple capable players, having competent senior coaches, competent selection committees and competent board, but by the number of captain armbands you distribute.

Con men need a gimmick. Something to distract from what they are really up to.

 

[Hammer#8]

I remember KT describing us as a small margin club a year before he left. He described a 2014 type year as 'shooting the lights out', meaning it's a best case scenario for our supporter base and makes the club a small profit.

If we finished 10th and just miss finals the club hits break even.

This is unfortunately our status quo in the eyes of the club and coaching admin at the moment. A PF loss is like a fat bonus at Christmas for the club which we should be grateful for.

 

[TeeKray]

I've always just found it so incredibly weird that Koch has hitched his wagon to Hinkley. You've got a supposedly smart guy who has built a career in finance, who for his day job analyses ASX 200 companies, who presumably rubs shoulders with the business elite of Sydney. And yet, when it comes to the footy club he basically runs unilaterally, he's all in on this country bumpkin from Geelong who says things like 'youse' and 'I seen it' in front of the sponsorship boards at post match pressers.

And it's not like Hinkley was a Koch appointment - Koch became president on 1 October 2012, Hinkley was appointed on 8 October 2012. Hinkley was a KT appointment, Koch would've been nothing more than a rubber stamp. So there's no personal vindication at play here.

The sad thing is, if Koch had grown some balls and let Hinkley go in 2017 (or 2018 or 2019) and got someone decent in, we could be sat here with a flag, probably greatly reduced debt and people actually worshiping Koch as the guy who took us from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain.

It's just really, really strange.

 

[Kingfish73]

The only hope and faith I currently hold for this club is knowing there is a core supporter base on this forum that understand high performance businesses, clubs, teams and individuals. We currently stand for little with Koch and Hinkley leading. It's belittling watching their egos playing out over a decade while we get fed absolute bullsh##. The biggest proof point is Ken stating he would not change a thing after 2021 preliminary preparation. True leaders adapt and change. This guy is a complete fraud. I want leadership that drives a ruthless organisation with an underpinning culture that bleeds success. The reason I ditched my membership this year. I however maintained 3 of 4 in family to not give up on our young talent. But ### me, I wanted to vote with my own membership and I will continue to rant...and sell the sack Hinkley + Koch to all my supporter mates to maintain the pressure.

Never have I felt so disinterested in a season

 

[Hammer#8]

Lol I still remember KTs bizarre rant comparing the one captain tradition to wearing an old leather helmet from the 1900s or something, saying that while it's cool it's just a relic of the past and there are more effective options out there now.

By his logic we should give up the prison bars since more colour dyes exist now.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I've always just found it so incredibly weird that Koch has hitched his wagon to Hinkley. You've got a supposedly smart guy who has built a career in finance, who for his day job analyses ASX 200 companies, who presumably rubs shoulders with the business elite of Sydney. And yet, when it comes to the footy club he basically runs unilaterally, he's all in on this country bumpkin from Geelong who says things like 'youse' and 'I seen it' in front of the sponsorship boards at post match pressers.

And it's not like Hinkley was a Koch appointment - Koch became president on 1 October 2012, Hinkley was appointed on 8 October 2012. Hinkley was a KT appointment, Koch would've been nothing more than a rubber stamp. So there's no personal vindication at play here.

The sad thing is, if Koch had grown some balls and let Hinkley go in 2017 (or 2018 or 2019) and got someone decent in, we could be sat here with a flag, probably greatly reduced debt and people actually worshiping Koch as the guy who took us from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain.

It's just really, really strange.

That's because you don't understand the vanity, image conscious and ratings driven obsessions of TV stars, and this one in particular, is too gutless to be seen as the hard, tough, campaigner who knifed Bambi.

The back tracking of paying out the players in the change rooms and then at the post match function after the EF loss in 2017, then the bad PR and criticism he received, of not understanding footy and the players efforts, and then the grovelling to Ken and Donna a week later to not run off to the GC, explains it all.

 

[Lockhart Road]

That's because you don't understand the vanity, image conscious and ratings driven obsessions of TV stars, and this one in particular, is too gutless to be seen as the hard, tough, campaigner who knifed Bambi.

The back tracking of paying out the players in the change rooms and then at the post match function after the EF loss in 2017, then the bad PR and criticism he received, of not understanding footy and the players efforts, and then the grovelling to Ken and Donna a week later to not run off to the GC, explains it all.

Fresh research into Chairman Moi and his exploits had me coming across the Guardian’s political summary of the first of our three China games, played in May 2017, four months before the post-elimination final fiasco.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...elations-is-a-numbers-victory-for-kochs-power

It reads, in part:
Of the appointments he has made as Port Adelaide President, Koch’s appointment of Andrew Hunter, who has a background in international engagement, must rank alongside that of coach Ken Hinkley, who has a background in coaching small Western District football clubs. For the past two years, Hunter has schooled the Power’s staff on Chinese culture and protocols as part of the club’s China strategy – a strategy that has brought in more than $6m. That’s a hell of a ‘first step’.

Hinkley was either absent from AH’s tutorials, didn’t understand what was being said, or wasn’t paying attention. Or decided he would do the exact opposite.

Koch, as REH (make that TeeKray) points out, did not ‘appoint’ Hinkley … nor AH. KT secured both. Koch has involved himself in no non-Hinkley senior coach appointments and therefore there has been none. He did involve himself, with Cos Cardone, and without telling Hinkley, in appointing Michael Voss straight off the set of ‘The Recruit’, produced by Cardone. Koch shies away from anything directly face-to-face, man-to-man, anything threatening, hides from the flak that might result for fear it might make him not ‘look good’, and instead creates his own flak for himself by wandering off in different directions, on a tangent or three, destined to look not good in any case.

Our chairman goes into battle, so to speak, encumbered and rendered vulnerable by an innate fear of losing, which far outguns any expectation he might have of winning. This disability was behind his stupid spat with Tony Cochrane over the Suns wearing red in the 2017 China game. Koch was terrified that if Gold Coast wore red they would win.

Such is the fear of the dark that inhabits this chairman we tolerate.

Koch’s fear of coming second is pulled by inevitable gravity down through the Club … overwhelming en route those such as Cos Cardone in particular. And Cardone makes no secret of his ‘Kochism’. As an example, at the gala dinner in Shanghai on the eve of the first Suns match in 2017, my HK colleague found himself assigned to Cardone’s table, sitting well within earshot of Chicken Cacciatori who endured the occasion in a cold sweat, wringing white knuckles and muttering to himself over and over: “We can’t lose this game tomorrow. We just can’t lose tomorrow. What’s going to happen to us if we lose tomorrow.” That important little word ‘win’ was nowhere to be heard.

Cardone is the most senior director of our Club outside the chairman and deputy-chairman. Recommended by Koch to create, with himself, the Media Clique at the head of the board room table, then appointed by the AFL. Marshmellow of a man. Eddie’s CEO, to boot. He now starts his fourth term on our board. When does it start to end, this charade?

Edit: It was TeeKray who pointed out in his preceeding post, not REH, that KT appointed Hinkley, not Koch. Amendment made. Apologies to both.

 

[Lockhart Road]

I've always just found it so incredibly weird that Koch has hitched his wagon to Hinkley. You've got a supposedly smart guy who has built a career in finance, who for his day job analyses ASX 200 companies, who presumably rubs shoulders with the business elite of Sydney. And yet, when it comes to the footy club he basically runs unilaterally, he's all in on this country bumpkin from Geelong who says things like 'youse' and 'I seen it' in front of the sponsorship boards at post match pressers.

And it's not like Hinkley was a Koch appointment - Koch became president on 1 October 2012, Hinkley was appointed on 8 October 2012. Hinkley was a KT appointment, Koch would've been nothing more than a rubber stamp. So there's no personal vindication at play here.

The sad thing is, if Koch had grown some balls and let Hinkley go in 2017 (or 2018 or 2019) and got someone decent in, we could be sat here with a flag, probably greatly reduced debt and people actually worshiping Koch as the guy who took us from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain.

It's just really, really strange.

My mistake in not crediting you with pointing out that Koch did not appoint Hinkley in 2012 in your post yesterday has been admitted with due editing of my own post just now. It seems I replied to the wrong poster. Age, it gets us all in the end. Renewed apologies.

What I also wanted to respond to was your bemusement with the ‘strangeness’ the ‘weirdness’ of the Koch : Hinkley relationship. It has indeed grown stranger, more weird, the more time keeps passing through consecutive phases.

Personally I found / still find both to be strange / weird men, in very different ways - so different as to render any relationship between them to be beyond strange. Transactional, perhaps.

It seems they both need each other now … even though it has been Koch’s responsibility in a normal world to have sacked Hinkley long ago.

You mention the absence of any ostensible ‘personal vindication’ on Koch’s part in Hinkley’s longevity as senior coach. My view, as per the OP, is that guilt is doing just as effective a job on Koch. Guilt resulting from the aftermath of the 2017 elimination final and Koch’s abominable performance that he now recognises as such.

Hinkley now holds this over him. And so would the Victorian media should Koch’s hand be seen to move Hinkley on.

Weird, strange … shallow and vulnerable. Thats our chairman.

 

[xflamedancer]

Stinkley completely lost me when he came out ( I forget what year it was, maybe 2017 or 18) and said you can't expect to win a premiership every year.

If our Prez had anything remotely resembling a set of balls, he would have had him in his office the next day, answering a show cause as to why his contract shouldn't be cancelled on the spot.

I bet Clarko and Dimma go into every season planning and believing they are going to win it all.

Our weak as piss prez has firmly hitched his bandwagon to Hinkley, his ego won't allow him to even consider he made a mistake and he is going to ride that bandwagon over a cliff.

My biggest fear he is going to take our once proud club with it.

 

[edgie]

If you want to get paid $750k-$1m a year to coach a football club in a relative economic backwater then you actually might have to do stuff like that.

Alternatively he could go coach a big Victorian club. Oh that's right, none of them wanted him.

He should've taken the offer to coach at the SUNS. He could've got them to 10th place and they probably would've built a statue and named the B&F after him.

Then sacked him four seasons later when they haven't progressed past eternal 6th to 10th material.

Sent from my Nokia 7.2 using Tapatalk

 

[Duckimus Prime]

Koch was terrified that if Gold Coast wore red they would win.

No he was concerned that after doing all the work to get the China experiment off the ground, Port Adelaide would lose out financially to the team that turned up wearing the Chinese National sporting colours.

 

[TeeKray]

No he was concerned that after doing all the work to get the China experiment off the ground, Port Adelaide would lose out financially to the team that turned up wearing the Chinese National sporting colours.

I'm not sure which notion is more absurd - the notion that the couple of thousand Chinese people in attendance would take a liking to the SUNS simply because of what colours they were wearing or the notion that the SUNS would actually win a game.

 

[Lockhart Road]

No he was concerned that after doing all the work to get the China experiment off the ground, Port Adelaide would lose out financially to the team that turned up wearing the Chinese National sporting colours.

I'm not sure which notion is more absurd - the notion that the couple of thousand Chinese people in attendance would take a liking to the SUNS simply because of what colours they were wearing or the notion that the SUNS would actually win a game.

Looking back over Koch’s term as chairman and counting the dimwitted stuff he’s done engenders in me a feeling towards him of ‘what the hell, why try?’ Certainly that’s what KT clearly indicated to me when we spoke long-distance in early May 2017.

KT had just received a message from State Grid Corp. of China in Beijing announcing that they wanted to come down to Shanghai for the game. KT invited them also to the gala dinner the night before the game, and I put myself in the position of hosting them on his behalf. My HK colleague was meant to be with me, but he got forced off the table by interlopers from the SA Govt gang and ended up, as I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, at Cardone’s table.

State Grid was one of two subjects I wanted to cover with KT on the phone that day; the other was the Suns wearing red and gold. I’d never considered it to be any sort of a problem. In fact, I wanted to PR it into an advantage for us by adopting a different angle, along the lines of the red and gold raising the profile of the game in the eyes of casual Chinese observers and TV channel surfers in China. I had never been asked my opinion, and when I eventually raised the subject with KT a couple of weeks before the game he was weary with the ‘Koch seeing red’ exercise and didn‘t want to hear any more about it.

Checking back, I see that Koch started his ‘silly buggers’ feud with Cochrane back in February 2017. It wasn’t a good year for the chairman when it came to PR, which ought to be his home ground, his wicket, but actually isn’t.

Here’s how the Guardian reported it in February 2017:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...-suns-refusal-to-back-down-over-china-jumpers

Seeing red: Port angered by Suns' refusal to back down over China jumpers

• Suns intent on wearing red and gold when they play Port Adelaide in China
• ‘Gold Coast are playing silly buggers,’ says Power president

Port Adelaide president David Koch has told Gold Coast Suns if they wear red-and-gold jumpers in their match in Shanghai it will be the last time they are invited to China.

The Suns have refused to back down from wearing their home jumper of red-and-gold, which are also China’s national colours, when the teams square off on 14 May in the first AFL match to take place in the country.

“The AFL is going to have to rule on it because it’s distracting from the absolute historic event that this China game is all about,” David Koch told Radio FIVEaa on Tuesday.

The Suns are listed as the home team, but Koch said Power has paid them $500,000 for all rights to the game to make it as if Power were the home club.

“Gold Coast is playing silly buggers,” he said. “We’re the club leading the AFL into China, we have bought this game and paid good money for it, we’re the ones that are committed for the next 10 years to play a game in China each year.”

Koch repeated his threat that this would be the first and last time the Suns are asked to play in China, saying there are plenty of other clubs who want to “leverage our work in China”.

“As I’ve said to Tony Cochrane, if you wear the red and gold jumper it’ll be the last time we’ll ever play you in China. It’s up to you. And really [it’s] up to the AFL to make a decision on this and we’ll abide by the decision,” he said.

Last week Gold Coast chairman Cochrane said there is no written agreement about which jumpers the teams will wear, and dismissed Koch’s ultimatum. “The AFL – not Koch – has full responsibility for the league calendar,” he told The Advertiser.

 

[PowerLil]

AFL
Last week Gold Coast chairman Cochrane said there is no written agreement about which jumpers the teams will wear, and dismissed Koch’s ultimatum. “The AFL – not Koch – has full responsibility for the league calendar,” he told The Advertiser.[/I]

Ah the irony. "The AFL - not Koch - has the full responsibility for the league calendar."
The AFL had no problem allowing then Collingwood president Eddie Maguire dictate which guernsey we wear.

 

[Power of Neptune]

Have people forgotten we were a bees diaphragm away from folding in 2011? Our best young player was John Butcher

John Butcher

Age

33

Ht

197cm

Wt

94kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

8.7

2star

K

5.1

2star

HB

3.6

3star

M

3.3

3star

T

1.6

4star

G

1.3

5star

No current season stats available

D

7.8

2star

K

4.8

2star

HB

3.0

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.4

4star

G

2.6

5star

for god's sake, and our supporters clapped at quarter time in a game against the Bulldogs after we finally kicked a goal, which was preceded by the Bulldogs kicking 11 unanswered goals.

We got towelled up by the Giants by 6 goals in 2012 FFS, back when they were uncompetitive against every side other than Gold Coast.

That reminds me, we gave Gold Coast their first ever win after we were 40 points up! At home in front of our own supporters to boot!

Look at our list now and compare it to when Ken took over. Ken has turned over our whole list in that time, while we haven't bottomed out at all during his tenure.

2008-2012 were the true dark years, and shouldn't be grouped with 1870-2007, regardless of the fact the thread OP is mostly tongue in cheek.

Geelong and West Coast are the only clubs besides us to have not bottomed out at all during Ken's coaching tenure, people tend to underestimate how hard it is to turn a list over without bottoming out.

West Coast last bottomed out 2008-2010 while we last bottomed out 2008-2012, overall there isn't much separating the two clubs in terms of on field performance since Ken has been coaching, which is a good effort when you consider the fact we've barely got any resources compared to West Coast, who are arguably the richest and most well resourced club in the AFL.

 

[Schulzenfest]

Have people forgotten we were a bees diaphragm away from folding in 2011? Our best young player was John Butcher for god's sake, and our supporters clapped at quarter time in a game against the Bulldogs after we finally kicked a goal, which was preceded by the Bulldogs kicking 11 unanswered goals.

We got towelled up by the Giants by 6 goals in 2012 FFS, back when they were uncompetitive against every side other than Gold Coast.

That reminds me, we gave Gold Coast their first ever win after we were 40 points up! At home in front of our own supporters to boot!

Look at our list now and compare it to when Ken took over. Ken has turned over our whole list in that time, while we haven't bottomed out at all during his tenure.

2008-2012 were the true dark years, and shouldn't be grouped with 1870-2007, regardless of the fact the thread OP is mostly tongue in cheek.

Geelong and West Coast are the only clubs besides us to have not bottomed out at all during Ken's coaching tenure, people tend to underestimate how hard it is to turn a list over without bottoming out.

West Coast last bottomed out 2008-2010 while we last bottomed out 2008-2012, overall there isn't much separating the two clubs in terms of on field performance since Ken has been coaching, which is a good effort when you consider the fact we've barely got any resources compared to West Coast, who are arguably the richest and most well resourced club in the AFL.

This pissweak argument has been debunked time and time and time and time again in this thread, and I'm not going to dignify your garbage post by bothering to do so again.

 

[TazD]

Have people forgotten we were a bees diaphragm away from folding in 2011? Our best young player was John Butcher for god's sake, and our supporters clapped at quarter time in a game against the Bulldogs after we finally kicked a goal, which was preceded by the Bulldogs kicking 11 unanswered goals.

We got towelled up by the Giants by 6 goals in 2012 FFS, back when they were uncompetitive against every side other than Gold Coast.

That reminds me, we gave Gold Coast their first ever win after we were 40 points up! At home in front of our own supporters to boot!

Look at our list now and compare it to when Ken took over. Ken has turned over our whole list in that time, while we haven't bottomed out at all during his tenure.

2008-2012 were the true dark years, and shouldn't be grouped with 1870-2007, regardless of the fact the thread OP is mostly tongue in cheek.

Geelong and West Coast are the only clubs besides us to have not bottomed out at all during Ken's coaching tenure, people tend to underestimate how hard it is to turn a list over without bottoming out.

West Coast last bottomed out 2008-2010 while we last bottomed out 2008-2012, overall there isn't much separating the two clubs in terms of on field performance since Ken has been coaching, which is a good effort when you consider the fact we've barely got any resources compared to West Coast, who are arguably the richest and most well resourced club in the AFL.

Lmao, much like Neptune this is just a big ball of gas.