IN AMERICAN sports vernacular, Ken Hinkley would be revered, a winner in 10 of 12 completed seasons.
His career winning percentage of 59.52 would be celebrated, and his qualification for "playoffs" in seven of those 12 seasons, and progress through to a "conference championship" game on four occasions, would be lauded.
The AFL system, unfortunately, doesn't allow for overwhelming positivity to be heaped on anyone other than those who get to hold aloft a premiership cup.
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Hinkley has known since February that he would not be coaching Port Adelaide beyond this season, his 13th, regardless of outcome. With a 7-8 scoreline placing the Power 10th after round 16, two matches and a hefty percentage behind the nine teams vying for a place in the top eight, he is unlikely to make the 2025 "playoffs".
But with three wins from the past four matches, he is going out the way he came in – fighting to win every contest.
And he will be somewhere prominent in the AFL system in 2026. Such is the regard for him in the league, as well as the relationships he has formed with so many leaders, that there will be multiple options for him to consider, some which he has been mulling for some time.
The Tasmania Devils are very interested in his movements, and while the politics in that state has the club's entry to the AFL in 2028 in a holding position, the Devils would love to have him involved not as coach, but as the senior member of its football department.
His relationship with, and respect for, Carlton coach Michael Voss is so strong that even last Thursday night, when his Power team belted the beleaguered Blues at Adelaide Oval, his own thoughts sympathetically went to Voss.
Should Graham Wright, the incoming Carlton CEO, choose to honour Voss' 2026 contract and then set out to bolster the Blues' football department, Hinkley could loom as a prominent candidate. As may ex-West Coast coach Adam Simpson.
There is also a bond with Brisbane coach Chris Fagan that could come into play. Fagan is contracted to the end of 2027. Lions football boss Danny Daly has been approached by multiple clubs requesting he engage in negotiations ranging from senior coaching to CEO roles in recent times, and one day he may accept one of those offers. Should he do so, Fagan would have no hesitation in endorsing Hinkley for the Daly vacancy.
Hinkley himself has been approached for several jobs during his time at Port Adelaide.
The Gold Coast Suns were well advanced in being prepared to rip him out of a contract with the Power when they were considering coaching options post-Rodney Eade in 2017, before appointing Stuart Dew. And Geelong, where Steve Hocking played 121 matches and was an assistant coach, explored a senior football department role for him when Hocking, the current CEO, exited for a senior role with the AFL.
Even in Hinkley's worst years in charge of Port Adelaide, he always managed a double-digit win number. Under his Power watch, there may have been many low moments, but the bottom has never fallen out of a season, and he has never lost his playing group.
Hinkley was announced as Port Adelaide coach in October 2012, assuming duties at a struggling club which had been forced to place black tarpaulins over empty seats at home matches, and immediately re-installed a powerful Power identity.
On the day of that appointment, he said: "Maybe I was the right man standing."
There have been some wobbly moments in the 13 seasons that have ensued, but the Port Adelaide board and Hinkley have handled with class his transition out of its coaching role, with Josh Carr to take over.
And Hinkley will still be standing in a prominent place in the AFL system in 2026.
