In England, West Ham United is known as the Academy Of Football, a place where a legion of players get their education then leave for more lucrative surrounds.

Swans looking to put the clamps on the Magpies

At Alberton, Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams thinks of the Power as a club of learning, where skills are honed and perfected under the guidance of a senior figure who spent a good part of his younger years juggling school teaching with playing.

In keeping with the theme, the Power can boast an impressive array of coaches and officials who either had their start with Port or had their stocks rise considerably during their time at the club.

Since 2001, when Port began the run of success that led to the 2004 premiership, to now, a long list of these staffers have come and gone, generally to higher profile jobs.

The recent exit of chief executive John James during a year when Port require all hands on deck, calls into question the academy ethic.

Are the exits purely because there are greater pay cheques to be won and achievements to be chased elsewhere?

Or are they partly the result of what is frequently a fractious working environment?

“Most of the coaching staff went to bigger jobs,” Williams said.

“Dean (Bailey) and Alistair (Clarkson) went on to coach AFL clubs so that’s pretty good, Geoff Morris was here for 10 years so that’s not a bad stint.”

But he acknowledged that changes at any organisation can destabilise as much as they refresh, recalling his VFL career with Collingwood and an embryonic Brisbane.

“I was at Collingwood for six years and I think we had five coaches, and then Brisbane there for three years and we had four coaches, so I think stability in clubs is vital,” Williams said.

“If you look at the Dockers over the years they’ve had lots and lots of coaches and I don’t think it’s a good thing for the players or even the character of the club, so I’d like to think you build a coaching group.”

The conundrum now for the Power is how much change will be useful for a club not currently functioning as it would like to.

Williams promises there will be minimal changes to the football department, meaning football manager Peter Rohde, assistants Adam Kingsley, Jason Cripps, Tony McGuinness and Matthew Primus and fitness manager Tim Comerford should be safe.

“All of us improve every year without doubt with reviews and talking to other coaches, making sure different people from different backgrounds give you on the job training.

“I’d expect our coaching group to be very similar and we’ll get better next year.”

Port Adelaide officials to have departed since 2001:
Brian Cunningham (CEO) now CEO of SA government department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology
Alistair Clarkson (assistant coach) now senior coach of Hawthorn
Geoff Morris (assistant coach) now development manager at Hawthorn
Brenton Sanderson (assistant coach) now assistant coach at Geelong
Dean Bailey (assistant coach) now senior coach at Melbourne
John James (CEO) soon to take on a management role at US funds management firm Vanguard
Andrew Russell (fitness coach) now fitness coach at Hawthorn
Darren Burgess (fitness coach) now fitness coach with Socceroos
Matt Rendell (assistant coach) now recruiting manager at Adelaide
Hitaf Rasheed (media manager) soon to become General Manager of Events South Australia
Alan Stewart (recruiting manager) now development manager at Adelaide
Chris Pelchen (recruiting manager) now general manager of player personnel at Hawthorn
Mick Moylan (recruiting an list management) now football manager at West Coast
Damien Farrow (consultant) now a decision-making coach at Adelaide
David Pittman (assistant coach) now a stock broker
Rob Snowden (football operations manager) now a franchise manager

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