News Ian McKeown Departs

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Worth putting in here what Mackers said about his time at Port, that he wants a break and spend time with his family, I'm sure I read years ago he met his wife at the AIS in Canberra, so maybe Ireland, or Europe or USA beckons and what Chris Davies said about Mackers.


PORT ADELAIDE’s Head of High Performance Ian McKeown has announced he will depart the club at the end of the season.

McKeown confirmed to players and coaches on Wednesday that he would end his association with Port Adelaide after nine seasons at the end of the 2021 campaign.

Initially brought to the club in 2013 to be the Head of Athletic Development, McKeown, who holds a PhD in Strength and Conditioning, was elevated into his current role in 2017 following a global search.

Originally from County Down in Northern Ireland, McKeown had previously worked in a number of professional sports and with elite athletes across the world.

He says after 12 years in Australia, he intends to spend some time with his wife Kristie and son Jack to consider his next move.

“The timing is right for us as a family to take a break together and decide what our next adventure is,” McKeown said.


“I’d like to thank everyone around the club for making my time as memorable as it has been. I’ve been incredibly fortunate in the roles I’ve had with Port Adelaide; I’ve been able to work with the world’s best practitioners, a phenomenal playing group, and a great group of coaches.

“It has been an absolute privilege and I leave with life-long friendships that I will cherish wherever the journey takes us from here.”


General Manager – Football, Chris Davies said McKeown had been key to the club’s on-field improvement since his arrival and he would be missed.

“Ian arrived at the club in November 2012 and has brought excitement, energy and expertise to our program for every day since. He has been a key driver of our improvement on-field through our training and recovery standards, which have been there for all to see,” Davies said.

“At the end of 2017, his work was rewarded with elevation to the position of Head of High Performance. He adapted to the role very quickly and made it his own, both in setting our program and in his management of our high-performance staff.

“Simply put, Ian McKeown is a world-class high-performance practitioner. We’ll miss him, along with Kristie and Jack, but wish them all the best for their next steps.”

The club will commence a process to recruit McKeown’s replacement in the coming days.
 
Quite a few on twitter asking if burgo is available. I don't think he suits afl and just burns players out by the end of the year. He should stick to soccer
 

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Quite a few on twitter asking if burgo is available. I don't think he suits afl and just burns players out by the end of the year. He should stick to soccer
He wasn't good at Liverpool or Arsenal either.
 
As I recall, Koch wasn’t impressed at the way Burgo left mid season to pursue his own goals. Not sure the board would be too keen to welcome him back.
Good thing is it will be Chris Davies who will appoint the next head of High Performance. No one is going to reject CD's recommendation.
 
Melbourne look in amazing nick this year. A balance of aerobic capacity and size. Maybe Burgo has learned what suits AFL.

But you would want to chain him to the wheel if you went down that path again.
 
Melbourne look in amazing nick this year. A balance of aerobic capacity and size. Maybe Burgo has learned what suits AFL.

But you would want to chain him to the wheel if you went down that path again.

By the sounds it sounds like the chain is in place if his wife has moved here with the kids.
 
Disappointing to lose such a key cog in our footy department, though I'm confident we will find someone equally as good to replace him. Wouldn't be opposed to promoting from within because our system is clearly working at this point. Soft tissue non contact injuries have been few and far between the last 2 seasons, and players are running out games.

One thing I hope we don't do is go out and hire someone from overseas who has no experience in AFL. The AFL is an extremely unique sport - need to be able to run anywhere between 13-15ks, at least 2-3k at high speed, all the while experiencing collisions from all angles which is dictated by the 360 degree nature of the sport. It is not rugby whereby the collisions are straight on in a line, and it's not like soccer where aerobic capacity and sheer explosiveness trump everything else - including the ability to train someone physically to bring a player 10+kg heavier than them down to the ground by force.

I think he has done a poor job at Carlton - but Andrew Russell is someone I'd at least want to have a chat with. Has a tremendous track record over 20 years at the AFL level and is as well versed as anyone in the industry.
 
Reading the tea leaves a bit, I don’t think Koch would be all too keen on Burgess coming back. He scuppered a joint venture with Uni SA last time he left so I’m guessing there’d be some bad blood at board level.
 
I don’t get the Burgess hate. He’s a Port man at heart and has enormous experience in the AFL. He’s taken Melbourne from a team who refused to do certain pre season fitness drills to probably the fittest in the AFL. He took us as a bunch of kids to the fittest team in the AFL by a mile- those 4th quarter surges were amazing. He may have overdone it with us but everyone makes mistakes and he seems to have learned.

And blaming him for accepting a job at Arsenal or Liverpool is silly. That is the holy grail of fitness jobs. Port has always encouraged our people to take on bigger and better things. No one criticized Paul Vandenberg, no one would criticize CD if he took a plumb AFL gig- hell, no one at the club criticized Polec for taking a huge offer -and he went to a rival club.

So can the Burgess hate. Just appoint the best person for the job- if it’s Burgess, appoint him. If it’s someone else, appoint them. But don’t let petty, historic gripes sway the decision.

And may I repeat- he is a Port man. He grew up barracking for Port. He is world class at what he does and barracks for our little suburban club. I must have jumped into an alternate universe because in the one I came from we would embrace such people with open arms.
 
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I’d love him to burn the Crows for us, it would be gold.

Other than that, who do we target that is fresh? Would have to be a 2IC from within or another club?
 
Are Hulk Hogan or Randy Savage available?

Mackers is great, but 9 years is probably enough at a personal level. If he feels this way, I think it'll benefit the club to get a fresh appointment.

Hinkley probably feels the same about his role but he would never have the balls to pull the pin.
 
Are Hulk Hogan or Randy Savage available?

Mackers is great, but 9 years is probably enough at a personal level. If he feels this way, I think it'll benefit the club to get a fresh appointment.

Hinkley probably feels the same about his role but he would never have the balls to pull the pin.

Randy would have to communicate via ouija board. Step up from Skype ;)
 
It's not as if this will come as news to Port. They have probably had the wheels in motion for a while.

if he’s a quality employee yes he would have given them some notice to start looking.
 
I have a different perspective on this than the majority.

I don't think we should be overlooking Burgo based on 'bad blood' or the past history of him having walked out on us. At the end of the day, he left us to take up high level roles. It's not as if he left us to go work for another AFL club or something. And he stayed for 3 years in his first stint and 5 years in his second stint so history says he'll stick around for at least a good amount of time.

And I know people have concerns about his methods cooking the players and all of that but I'm not convinced the evidence really supports that.
 

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