"SLEEP. I can sleep." 

It's probably the only time during our hour-long chat that Ken Hinkley doesn't wait for me to finish my question. But it's not because the answer is that obvious to him. If anything, it comes across more like a moment of great self-realisation for the legendary coach. 

We are talking about the big changes to his life since parting ways with Port Adelaide at the end of last season, which has paused a 43-year-long uninterrupted association with the sport as player and then coach. And the 59-year-old insists that the biggest difference for him is when he gets to bed every night. Not just because he's sleeping better than he has in years. 

"I can have a little bit of unbroken sleep now and go back to sleep without having the thought of staying awake or not thinking about footy," he tells AFL.com.au. 

Now, if you can't really fathom the magnitude of what that change in sleep pattern has meant to him, you, like me, have never been a footy coach at any level. It is a great illustration of the all-consuming nature of the job that Hinkley has championed for so long. For, as he describes next, this is how it's been for him over the last three decades every time he's woken up in bed.

"In the middle of the night when it's quiet and dark, there's nothing else to think other than, 'oh, what have I got to do for footy? What's on? Who's injured? Who's playing? Who's not playing? Where are we playing? What have we got to do?' You know, everything's got to be ready in a certain time in a footy season," he says. 

When Hinkley walked off Adelaide Oval, arm in arm with Travis Boak, on an emotional night last August, it brought an end to his enduring and endearing relationship with the Power that had lasted 13 years. It was in his local town of Camperdown in southwestern Victoria where he had kicked off his career though, playing senior football at the age of 16 before going on to represent Fitzroy and Geelong at the highest level. He finished playing in 1995 and took up coaching, starting with Camperdown, the very next year. 

And it's only as he reminisces over his time in the sport that Hinkley himself realises how long he's had it in his life. 

"I was a 16-year-old when I started. Now I'm 59. 43 years of footy seasons. That's crazy. That's a lot, isn't it, when I think about it. That is a lot."

Hinkley's response does stray into some inner dialogue, and I let him indulge in it. Because it's once more an indicator of what he means when he says, "I think until you stop, you probably don't realise how long you've had it."

And it is only understandable that he's coming off the most unique 
off-season of his life, where he's not had to worry about pre-season training or recruitment at different levels. 

Or, as he puts it, "the freest six months of my life from football in 30 years". 

Hinkley admits that it won't be a straightforward transition for him to life without football coaching, even if it does allow him time and space to focus on other interests. For now, he's already made a smooth shift to the broadcast box, where he's already receiving rave reviews for his analysis from the expert's chair, where his pure love for the sport comes through very evidently. He's aware, however, that there will come a time sometime during the season where he'll feel the pinch. 

Hinkley, after all, is a self-confessed footy addict. And even if I try to get to it in a roundabout way, he sets me straight by acknowledging just how integral the sport is to his very being. 

"No, you can say I was hooked on it. Because footy's been me. You don't just stop coaching and forget footy. I have been addicted to it," he says.

That is not to say that Hinkley has ever got his priorities mixed up. Family has always been paramount for the genial sport-mad former coach. With footy "a clear, clear number two". It's only that footy has always been in the background, whether it's while he's been on holidays or spending time with his grandkids. It has meant missing birthdays, anniversaries and multiple Easter egg hunts. Not anymore, though. Even if he's aware that there are some moments he won't get back with his three kids and wife Donna. 

Here, he gives another example of the year-round nature of being an AFL coach, when I ask him about how incredible it sounds that even his off-seasons were fully packed. 

"There's a little window, I reckon, of about two days, once you get through the trade period," he reveals before bursting into laughter. "Through October, November, draft and then trade period, and you're always looking at the new kids." 

There was no question, either, of switching off when he would get time at home during the season. 

"You've got to be able to come inside and try not to be seen doing football. You've got to try and engage as best you can but every spare minute, you've got your computer open, you're watching vision, you're watching games, you're preparing for the opposition. There never seemed to be too many down moments where you could just sit there and not do it," he says. 

It's for that very reason that he raves about the support he's received from his immediate family, about how they've always been up for the ride, whether it's shifting bases from Victoria to Queensland to Adelaide, or even dealing with the ups and downs of being a public figure in a league as heavily scrutinised as the AFL. 

In his time with Port, Hinkley developed a very deserving reputation of being a father-figure to his players while also bringing his 'family first' approach to his first stint as a head coach in the AFL.

"I used to always say that at the footy club, just let me be the coach that I want to be. And the coach I want to be is a coach who connects with his players and cares for his players. They let me do that all the time. That's why we as a footy club rarely lost players over my journey. We've had some great players, right back to Travis (Boak), who's just finished, and Robbie Gray, most of them have stayed around. We've lost three or four players over a 13-year period," Hinkley says. 

It wasn't only on the field or around the dressing room that Hinkley played the role of the custodian. There's a lovely story of how he was spotted in the waiting room of the maternity ward when one of his players' wives was about to give birth. 

"I'd say with Charlie Dixon and Sam Powell-Pepper. And in a different way, Zak Butters. it's been bigger than just footy. I think it's been a bit more and a bit broader than that. And the connection that I have with those people is slightly different than just purely football.

"Charlie came to Port Adelaide from the Gold Coast. He's a Cairns boy. I'll be forever grateful for what he'd done for me, the way he played football, you know, and the way he went about it. Sam, the same, the way he's played with such a fearless approach on the field.

"But you've got to see why the person is really important, and to guide and help the person. To let them go on the footy field was pretty easy. To help them get to the footy field was sometimes more of a challenge."

It has been a fascinating ride for him as he's traversed multiple generations during his own 30-year journey as coach. From being at an age where he could easily relate with his players, to then having to evolve with changing times. 

"You stayed connected to youth because you were around youth all the time. I've grown older with them. And in turn it's made me stay young," he points out. 

It's notable that Hinkley has never really felt the need to check in with himself in terms of how he was evolving as a person on and off the field. Hinkley puts it down to the unbridled love he had for his job, and for Port Adelaide. Including the difficult phases where there was immense negativity dished out towards him, and where he had to endure the impassioned criticism that comes with being an AFL coach in a two-team city like Adelaide. 

But ask him to gauge his own run in Alberton, and he can't help be self-critical, especially when it comes to the lack of premierships. And how he'll always hold that against his own estimation of his career with Port. 

"We won somewhere close to 60 per cent of the games that I was involved with at Port, which is a good record, but it doesn't mean you actually won. As a senior coach, the team I coached in AFL never won a premiership. So, I will always consider that it was not a success to the point of absolute ultimate success," he says.

"I'm not silly enough to say that it was an absolute disaster. I'll always say that, that we were a pretty good footy club, and we had great people and great culture. But ultimately, people will mark the success on premierships.

"We can still mark the success on the individual people, the players, the club, and the club is now in a really healthy position. And it wasn't when I went there. What I would always look at is how much the players also improve and get better. Whether they're a late pick in the draft, like Darcy Byrne-Jones was a late pick in the draft, or Ollie Wines, who was, you know, pick seven in the draft. They both have ultimately had very successful careers."

Hinkley cites the dream run in 2023, when Port won 13 matches on the trot, among his best times with the club, along with the fabulous start to his time at Alberton. 

"There were just some amazing wins. Dan Houston kick after the siren against Essendon at the MCG. Aliir's final touch against Sydney. It just felt like we were in the sweet spot. And back when I started, we went from five wins in the year before me to making finals. Making a prelim final in 2014. Sometimes I wonder whether it happened too quickly. Because the expectation just continuously grew from there then," he ponders aloud. 

Hearing Hinkley talk about Port is in itself a lovely reflection of simply how much it's meant to him, and why he couldn't get himself to accept a role with any other club this year. 

"I was told once, if you're prepared to put in three times and only get one back, you'll be successful. That's why when you leave Port Adelaide after 13 years, it feels like a breakup. I need time to heal. And I just can't go and walk away from Port Adelaide and pretend that I didn't love that footy club, because I did."

But he immediately adds: "I don't feel like footy's past me. I don't feel like coaching's past me. I don't feel like being involved in the game is past me."

And Hinkley's family links with Port Adelaide still remain with his son, Jordan, still involved with the club as an analyst. It's one morning when he saw Jordan leave for work during the pre-season that it also sank in for the veteran coach that he had left at the best time. 

"When he was going back to work for pre-season, it was a bit like, 'hmm, I don't have to go'. I didn't for a moment think that I really wanted to go. And maybe that was a sign that it was the right time for me not to be doing it anymore." 

Having said that, he doesn't have to try too hard to express just how much Port still means to him. It's clear that Hinkley, who's always put his family first, still cares equally for the club that has given him so much. For, Port Adelaide is now very much a part of his fabric and his family. 

"I saw Port play for the first time in a trial against West Coast on the television the other night. And I'm sitting there going, gee, the boys are playing well. But they're sort of someone else's team and boys now. But to me, they'll always feel like mine."