Coach Ken Hinkley - AFL Senior Coach

[Dalfino]

Following the AFL's most prestigious award and well-known event in the Brownlow Medal ceremony last night, it was the coaches turn's to vote it out against or for each other to find out who was the best of the crop. John Longmire, coach of the Sydney Swans, took away this years award to make it 2 AFLCA coach of the year awards in 3 years, but reportedly only beat Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson by a single vote. Ken Hinkley was last years winner after being voted by the other coaches for his outstanding revival of the Port Adelaide Football Club. This year, he is reported to have finished 3rd, as the poll on the Official AFL website allows the fans to vote between Clarkson, Longmire and Hinkley for whom they thought should have won the award. At the time of posting this, Hinkley sits on 52% of the votes from the fans whilst Clarko and Longmire are sitting on 22% and 26% respectively.

I would just like to give another round of applause to the man who changed our football club, Ken Hinkley. His 'Yes We Ken' mantra has just transformed this club and I don't think that many coaches can say that they took a club from 14th place in 2012 to a 5th placed finish after finals in 2013 and a 3rd placed finish after finals in 2014. Brilliant coach, brilliant attitude - can he get any better?

Glad the media and the fans are recognising him for everything that he has done. Just shows that the coaches know best, after Robbie took out the AFLCA players award! You'll get em' next year Ken, carn the pear!

Official Report found here: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-09-23/horse-wins-photo-finish

 

[Power04Surge]

Ken Hinkley, the best thing to happen since bottled water.

Id rate clarkson and hinkley as the joint best coaches for the year, find it hard to split them going with clarksons health issues at the half way point of the season and the clubs injuries this season, as much as i hate them after the weekend, the guy has been a great coach this year. While of course Ken is just a brilliant coach for port. Longmire on the other hand id rate to a lesser extent to Hinkley and Clarkson, lets be serious, anyone with that team should be heading deep into september.

 

[Bojangles17]

How do u rate him alongside chocos first 4 or 5 years

 

[Kickpuncher]

How do u rate him alongside chocos first 4 or 5 years

we'll let you know in 2-3 years.

 

[Powerade 08]

Best Young Player Award: Jaeger O'Meara (Gold Coast)

...

Cameron over Wingard last year.

 

[Chewy316]

For what Hinkley has been able to do since becoming head coach, it's been nothing short of extraordinary. You can point to Burgess, Kochie etc. No doubt everyone has played their role, but Hinkley has developed a game plan of footy that is not only effective come finals time, but it's attractive to watch and easy to the off-field marketing guys to promote.

There are no excuses in my eyes to see a team look disorganised on a footy field, as if they have no direction. Absolutely no excuse whatsoever. You see it with poor teams; their structures are all over the place. The best teams in the league are always well drilled, well positioned, and understand the nuances of the game which takes them to another level. That comes with coaching.

To go from a basket case under Primus, who might have been the worst head coach I've ever seen in the last 15 years of footy, to Hinkley's side that is the anti-Primus, is astounding. If he's not the best coach in the league, he's top 3. But I know one thing for sure: he's the best coach for our footy club.

 

[PAFC04]

How do u rate him alongside chocos first 4 or 5 years

Ken is on par with Choco.... Ken will be bring a premiership to Port, its just matter of when.....

Ken's impact on the group has far exceeded Choco's performances, Choco left us in a mess, I can't see this happening with Ken as coach and DK and KT at the helm.

ken will be a force to be reckoned with soon, and will be one of the great coaches of Port Adelaide, and like Fos, he has adopted the Creed and added to it, (if you can) terms like, Turn UP, Never Give Up and with the latest catch phrase, "if you want to watch exciting football..... come and watch Port Adelaide!"

Didn't see this with Choco

 

[tribey]

Best Young Player Award: Jaeger O'Meara (Gold Coast)

Wines went past JOM this year like Cole Trickle went past Robin Hood Men In Tights under the watchful eyes of Tom Hagen and Dale Doback.

 

[raman]

Wines went past JOM this year like Cole Trickle went past Robin Hood Men In Tights under the watchful eyes of Tom Hagen and Dale Doback.

 

[Powerade 08]

Wines went past JOM this year like Cole Trickle went past Robin Hood Men In Tights under the watchful eyes of Tom Hagen and Dale Doback.

True.

 

[*PAF]

How do u rate him alongside chocos first 4 or 5 years

What also needs to be remembered about 2000 to 2004 is how well we did with trading for players. Hawthorn have done the same thing in recent years and sure Choko and Clarkson deserve everything thrown their way but kudos need to be given to the off field staff that made it happen as well.
Gibson, Lake, Guerra, Dew, Wakelin, Bishop, Montgomery, Pickett, Mahoney just to name a few.

Sydney are no different. We do not have COLA but players traded in such as Hombsch, Polec and hopefully Ryder is what will make the difference.

 

[Powerstufff]

How do u rate him alongside chocos first 4 or 5 years

Hard to compare their tasks. Choco was an assistant to Jack Cahill for most of our first 2 years in the AFL, then rolled Jack late in 1998. I mention that because Choco had significant influence even before he took over. Our initial player lists were hampered by restrictive selection criteria the AFL imposed on start-up clubs then, Fremantle suffered similarly. But by 2001 Choco had built a powerhouse but mentally fragile team that in finals struggled to perform well enough, often enough, until we snagged a flag in his 6th year as senior coach. Choco's great flaw in hindsight was a too defensive mindset, won't bore you with rants about some of the awful (winning) H&A games we had to sit through.
Ken inherited a basically good list that had been essentially rudderless even back into Choco's later years. He was instantly lucky with a series of list management coups in adding Wines in 2013, and White and Polec in 2014. But that aside reality meets the myth. He coaches a fierce attacking style that his players love, I can't really think of an instance where we've tried to save a game for the sake of it. If we win a GF (or two) in the next few years those first few 'come from behind' wins in 2013 will become part of footy foklore.
On top of coaching games Choco had two other issues that cost us, and contrast to Ken.
The first is the infamous gold pass where Choco would continue to select poorly performing players week after week to try and play them back into form. Meanwhile talented reserves players scattered (then) through the SANFL could win games off their own boot for weeks, yet go unrewarded. Only injury, suspension or retirement of players opened up spots. By contrast Ken will drop under-performing AFL players, and there seems to have been some effort gone to to spread the resulting opportunities around through our reserves. When fringe players leave us it won't be through lack of opportunity as it used to be.
The second is media and club promotion savviness. Choco, Malthouse-like, did media under sufferance. He really did not support club promotion stuff that involved his players e.g. Auskick sessions or similar. It's probably hard to be too critical here because it's possible that with Kochy in charge of Choco things might have been different. But that didn't happen so we look at Ken and he's taken to the media stuff like a duck to water.

 

[FromTheHartland]

Ken Hinkley, the best thing to happen since bottled water.

Id rate clarkson and hinkley as the joint best coaches for the year, find it hard to split them going with clarksons health issues at the half way point of the season and the clubs injuries this season, as much as i hate them after the weekend, the guy has been a great coach this year. While of course Ken is just a brilliant coach for port. Longmire on the other hand id rate to a lesser extent to Hinkley and Clarkson, lets be serious, anyone with that team should be heading deep into september.

Bottled water in most cases is really bad; it leads to huge amounts of waste, inflated costs compared to tap water and ridiculous resource consumption associated in production. Just use tap water people! Don't let the PR juggernaut brainwash you.

Rant over.

KEN IS THE MAN, everyone let the PAFC juggernaut roll over you!

 

[philreich]

I never heard any of Choco's pre match addresses, but I find it difficult to believe that they would have been any more inspiring than the ones I've heard this year from Kenny. Put simply, Ken Hinkley demands respect - by virtue of both his words and his actions. Ever since that first press conference after he was announced as the new Port coach, I haven't known the man to put a foot wrong.

Opposition teams now know that Port Adelaide is never beaten until that final siren sounds, because our boys just keep giving and giving until there's no more to give. I have no doubt that 17 teams are already wary of the 2015 Power, and like this year, it's gonna be one helluva ride. Our super coach can take much of the credit - sign him up for life!!!!!!!

 

[AdamMarrett]

Ken is the best in the business.Throw any coach in the comp into our job 2 years ago no one else would've got the same results as Kenny or anywhere near them.I give the players a hell of alot of credit for the past 2 seasons with the work, and drive they've shown, on top of Burgo and the other coaches, plus Kochie and KT making the club one of the biggest in the comp now.But Kenny as a coach is peerless in my eyes, won't be long and he will be a premiership coach at Port Adelaide I feel

 

[questionable]

Bottled water in most cases is really bad; it leads to huge amounts of waste, inflated costs compared to tap water and ridiculous resource consumption associated in production. Just use tap water people! Don't let the PR juggernaut brainwash you.

Rant over.

KEN IS THE MAN, everyone let the PAFC juggernaut roll over you!

bottled water is pretty handy in third world countries and disaster zones

 

[Spadge]

bottled water is pretty handy in third world countries and disaster zones

and in SA where tap water tastes like s**t

 

[FromTheHartland]

bottled water is pretty handy in third world countries and disaster zones

That's why I said most cases...

 

[questionable]

That's why I said most cases...

just responding in kind to your rant directed at someone's completely innocuous comment.

i actually agree with you on bottled water - in places where the drinking water is safe

 

[questionable]

and in SA where tap water tastes like s**t

i actually like SA tap water . i miss it. especially that nice briney chlorine smell you get from the steam in the shower.

just think of all that salt as ELECTROLYTES (it's what plants crave)

 

[Tibbs]

just responding in kind to your rant directed at someone's completely innocuous comment. I actually agree with you on bottled water - in places where the drinking water is safe

"Kenny - Best thing since bottled water!!! WTH? Unusual analogy that. Visited the in-laws just outside of Myrtleford Victoria last month, and watched all these liquid container trucks trooping past each day, Asked the FIL, "What are they doing?" His reply, "They are taking water from my neighbors bore hole & bottling it in town!!" Are you kidding me? Bore water? Yep, thats what you are getting when you buy water from a major bottled water company. Thats my rant for the day. On the other hand having, having spent many years in the Pacific Islands, Cambodia, and recently a stint to Myanmar, I can attest to the fact that I would be DEAD without bottled water!! So there ... Kenny has been as refreshing as, and played a huge part in saving our club ... Bottled water! ... Nah, bugger it, it still doesnt fit!

How close did we get to a Granny this year under him though! C'mon Ken, throw the bank at Ryder!!! With him in our side, a healthy Redden, plus a few other well-chosen draft picks & trades, and we go into 2015 as one of the clear favorites for September action & ultimate success. A lot of work to do yet, but damn it, you just know Ken and the boys will give it their all!!

 

[Smithy7]

Ken Hinkley will be live in the 5AA studio after 4pm

 

[questionable]

ken hinkley - the best thing since sliced water and bottled bread.

would look good on a t-shirt...

 

[Smithy7]

Geez I bloody love listening to Ken .. I hope they post the Audio

 

[bringbackbucky]

Such a great interview. His honesty and brutality is so refreshing.