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The 2017 AFL season isn’t even over yet and already Ken Hinkley and Brad Scott, despite the frustrations of fans, have received extensions to 2021 and 2020 respectively.
Originally reported on Monday afternoon, Hinkley’s extension was officially confirmed on Tuesday morning.
Hinkley in all fairness didn’t have a bad year in the business. Our reader-voted ladder prediction from March tipped Port Adelaide to finish sixteenth, so a fifth-placed finish – even if it did end in an elimination final exit – was still wildly better than expected from the point of view of most punters.
However that perspective was lost pretty quickly after a competitive start to the year and by the time finals neared most Port Adelaide fans were eyeing a top four finish, a deep run into finals, maybe even an unlikely chance at the flag (I mean, if the Bulldogs can do it…).
Instead Port’s failure to take any real scalps either during the season or in the finals left fans a bit unsure as to whether or not he genuinely is the right man to take them forward.
Given that Hinkley was contracted until the end of 2018, there was no need to rush a decision on his future – this is the sort of thing that a club would usually look at in December-January, preferring to focus their more immediate energies on the trade period and draft.
Even when that decision was made, an extension for two years or even just the one would’ve been the most reasonable outcome for a coach who, despite plenty of promise, hasn’t delivered any finals wins inside the last three years.
Instead it has taken Port Adelaide only slightly more than a week after their season ended in disappointment to offer him an extension that will guarantee he continues in the role for the next four years at least, a minimum tenure at the club of nine seasons.
The reason, of course, is the lurking interest of the Gold Coast Suns, who were reportedly willing to offer Hinkley the security of a five-year deal which, being backed by the AFL, surely would have been a pretty kind one for his bank account balance.
That kind of lengthy deal makes sense for the Suns to offer Hinkley – he might not be their first premiership coach but he could at least offer a guaranteed level of quality. More than they need to pick the right coach, they need to not pick the wrong one.
On top of that as a former assistant at the Suns he already has good a relationship with some key members of the player base and might have been a crucial player in the mission to retain Tom J Lynch’s signature.
The Suns would have been more than happy for Ken Hinkley to deliver sweet mid-table mediocrity – it would be a step forward from being a basket case and something to build on – but a vocal Port Adelaide fanbase will not be accepting of the same.
A similar situation, of course, emerged a few weeks ago with North Melbourne’s Brad Scott reportedly also being targeted by Gold Coast, and also being quickly signed up by his current club with a two-year extension that suggests a lot more faith in him than most North fans have.
At first some thought maybe his extension was a sign that North had landed one of Dustin Martin or Josh Kelly, but that’s now clearly not the case. Instead, it seems that in the cases of both Scott and Hinkley, the coach and the club played a game of contract-extension chicken, and the club blinked.
These signings might ultimately prove to be good decisions. I would certainly have given the thumbs up to at least a one-year extension for both, and perhaps the longer deals will allow for greater stability at the clubs, which will lead to success.
Generally speaking however, being reactive isn’t a great way to do business, and that’s what both clubs appear to have done here. Only time will tell if it works out for them.
What’s next in Gold Coast’s search for a Messiah? This appears likely to be the end of their attempts to land someone with senior coaching experience, though personally I reckon they could do a lot worse than Ross Lyon.
Instead an untried coach now looks the likely result, with Carlton’s John Barker – hopefully a mini-Brendon Bolton, or a mini-mini-Alastair Clarkson – or Sydney’s Stewart Dew the candidates seemingly leading the way.