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Port prove if a week is a long time in football, 18 months is an eternity

Dan Campbell new author
Roar Rookie
16th September, 2014
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The wolves at Ken Hinkley's door are retreating after a 2-0 start. (Image: AFL Media)
Dan Campbell new author
Roar Rookie
16th September, 2014
17

Remarkably, only 10 of the AFL’s 18 coaches from 18 months ago are still in their respective top jobs.

A year and a half ago, senior coaches Michael Voss, Brett Ratten, James Hird, Kevin Sheedy, Mark Neeld, Scott Watters, John Worsfold were still at the helm.

Port Adelaide were in a period of vast transition, having parted ways with former club champion-turned senior coach Matthew Primus, to see out 2012 under caretaker-coach Garry Hocking.

Eighteen months on they have become the surprise packet of the last two seasons, and proof of how quickly the landscape changes with the right operating decisions.

Five wins, sixteen losses and one draw for a 14th place finish was the 2012 result for a side now lining up for a preliminary final against reigning premiers Hawthorn at a pulsating MCG this Saturday afternoon.

To place the awakening of the sleeping Power giant into further perspective, three wins, nineteen losses and narrowly avoiding the wooden spoon to the Gold Coast in their maiden season was their dismal story in 2011.

Port Adelaide home games at AAMI Stadium were become infamous for large, black tarps covering vast areas of seating in the absence of spectators.

If a club ever looked to be on life support, Port Adelaide was it.

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At the time it beggared belief that a club which largely dominated the competition from 2001-2004, with two minor premierships and the ultimate prize in 2004, could find itself in such dire straits. Eighteen months later, it beggars belief that same club is in booming shape on and off the field.

In footy clubs success starts off the field, which is exactly what Port Adelaide sought to do at the conclusion of 2012.

The appointment of media personality and financial commentator David Koch to the chairman’s position was to be the first bold move in the Power’s resurgence.

Much like Eddie McGuire of Collingwood, Koch has often been the subject of criticism by the Australian public, but much like McGuire a decade earlier, the savvy operating businessman has been invaluable to Port’s return to off-field stability. Plus there’s the subtle publicity for Port Adelaide on Seven’s daily morning breakfast show, Sunrise.

The influence of Koch was complemented by the appointment of Ken Hinkley, appointed six days after the new chairman.

A club in such a deeply dug black hole nailed two of the league’s most envied appointments in less than a week in October 2012.

Hinkley, a tough, uncompromising player in his day, won the best and fairest in 1992 for the Cats. He served a lengthy AFL apprenticeship as an assistant to Mark Thompson, forming the brains trust behind the formidable Geelong premiership-winning outfit in 2007 and 2009.

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Hinkley then served as an assistant to Guy McKenna at the Gold Coast Suns after being unsuccessful applying for senior coaching roles at Richmond, Geelong and St Kilda.

In his first year as senior coach of the Power in 2013, Hinkley was named the AFL Coaches Association’s coach of the year, as Port won 13 games including an elimination final, before a loss to Geelong in the semi-final.

It is astounding how a man of such profound influence on his players could find himself waiting as long as he did for a senior gig.

The development of Ollie Wines, Chad Wingard, Jake Neade, Matthew Lobbe to name a few, along with the class and experience of Travis Boak, Kane Cornes, Jay Schulz and Robbie Gray has Port Adelaide gelled with young enthusiasm and seasoned performers. There’s a unity among the playing group that may never have surfaced had Port not made a bold statement at the end of 2012.

Speaking of unity, eighteen months on, the large, black tarps at Port Adelaide games that once occupied seating bay after seating bay at AAMI Stadium have since been stowed away.

The fans at the new-look Adelaide Oval now stand as one pre-game, with scarves aloft as all and sundry belt out the INXS classic ‘Never Tear Us Apart’.

The four words in the song’s title could not sum up Port Adelaide’s situation 18 months on any better – a coach who would go to war for his players, players who would go to war for the coach, and a chairman whose love for the Power is as unwavering as the fans who stand as one.

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With 16 wins for the year after knocking over one of September’s most fancied sides in Fremantle in emphatic fashion, the Power are ripe for this week’s challenge.

Proving a week is a long time in football after devouring a hapless Richmond side that failed to give a yelp the week prior, 18 months is indeed an eternity.

Port Adelaide now have a date with the Hawks in a preliminary final at the home of football on Saturday for a place in footy’s ‘big dance’.

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