KEN Hinkley's confirmation as Tasmania's first AFL coach puts him in rare company. 

The Devils will become the eighth club to join the AFL/VFL in the past 40 years, and the men to have coached those seven preceding clubs in their formative years enjoyed varying levels of early success. 

As Hinkley prepares to roll up his sleeves and build the Apple Isle's first AFL team, we look back at the coaches who blazed the trail that the former Port Adelaide coach will follow in the coming seasons.  

WEST COAST

Inaugural coach: Ron Alexander
Record: 22 games, 11 wins, 11 losses (50 per cent win rate)

The most successful inaugural season by an AFL expansion club remains West Coast's 1987 campaign, which netted 11 wins and an eighth-place finish, just one game out of the top five. Despite that platform, however, inaugural coach Ron Alexander was sacked after one season and replaced by John Todd after some attempts to lure coaching greats David Parkin and Kevin Sheedy. Alexander enjoyed a 307-game playing career representing East Perth in the WAFL before playing 133 games with Fitzroy in the VFL and winning the club's best and fairest in 1981. He returned to WA in 1982 as a playing coach for East Fremantle, leading the club to successive Grand Finals from 1984-86, and winning the premiership in 1985. An imposing ruckman, he finished equal seventh in the Brownlow Medal in 1976, playing his best football for the Roys and representing WA in State of Origin in 13 games. Alexander was named WAFL Coach of the Year in 1986, making him a standout choice for the Eagles as they scoured the country for their inaugural coach. The Eagles' board decided after one season, however, that the club needed a change of direction to go to the next level, with Todd appointed for the next two seasons before 1992 and 1994 premiership coach Mick Malthouse took over from 1990.

BRISBANE BEARS

Inaugural coach: Peter Knights, 1987-89
Record: 59 games, 16 wins, 43 losses (27.12 per cent win rate)

Like many things in the early days of the Bears, the club took a punt in hiring Knights as their inaugural coach. One of the era’s greatest centre half-backs for Hawthorn, Knights was a thrilling player to watch with his high-flying, long-kicking style. He won three premierships with the Hawks and was twice runner-up in the Brownlow Medal. Once finishing his career, Knights was an assistant coach to Allan Jeans in 1986, where the brown and gold would add another VFL premiership. That’s when the fledgling Bears jumped in to sign the 34-year-old. Based on the Gold Coast with less-than-ideal facilities, it was always going to be an arduous task for the first-up coach. With a melting pot of players recruited from all around the country, they avoided the wooden spoon in 1987 with a final round thrashing of Richmond and would again finish second from bottom in 1988 with seven wins. However, the management, which included failed tycoon Christopher Skase as the deputy chairman, was a mess and the players were following suit. Knights was sacked with seven games remaining in the 1989 season, replaced on an interim basis by club psychologist, Paul Feltham.

ADELAIDE

Inaugural coach: Graham Cornes 
Record: 86 games, 42 wins, 1 draw, 43 losses (49.42 per cent win rate)

When the Crows were looking for a coach to lead what the club had dubbed "the team for all South Australians", they didn't have to look past one of the SANFL's most accomplished figures in Cornes. With 369 games across his SANFL and VFL stints, predominantly at Glenelg from 1967-82 where he won the 1973 premiership, and two premierships at South Adelaide as a coach as well as three Grand Final appearances at the helm of Glenelg, Cornes was a standout. A richly talented playing squad, packed with experienced SANFL stars and a smattering of the state's best young talent, was ready to make an impact and the Crows won 10 games in their debut season, including an 86-point thrashing of a powerhouse Hawthorn side on their debut. They built steadily to the 1993 season when they made the preliminary final, only to lose to Kevin Sheedy's 'Baby Bombers' after leading at three-quarter time. Adelaide missed the finals the following season and Cornes was dismissed in favour of Robert Shaw, who failed to make September in his two campaigns before Malcolm Blight took the reins and delivered instant premiership success in 1997 and '98.  

FREMANTLE

Inaugural coach: Gerard Neesham
Record: 88 games, 32 wins, 56 losses (36.36 per cent win rate)

The creation of a second WA team required the innovative style of one of the state's most influential figures, with Gerard Neesham appointed as the Dockers' inaugural coach halfway through 1994 ahead of the club's first season in 1995. Neesham played 230 games, primarily in the WAFL, while also representing Sydney in the VFL (nine games in 1982) and WA in State of Origin (three games). After three WAFL premierships as a player, he became player-coach of Claremont and led the Tigers to success in 1987 and 1989 before coaching them to two more flags in 1991 and 1993. That success in WA made him a leading candidate to coach the Dockers and he won the position ahead of Ken Judge, introducing an attacking, counter-attack game style that took inspiration from water polo and field hockey. It was even described by coaching great David Parkin as being ahead of its time, inspiring several AFL coaches that came after him. While he was sacked after four seasons, Neesham left a legacy at Fremantle through his commitment to Indigenous talent, forming the character and working-class culture of a club that was given modest list concessions compared to more recent expansion clubs.

PORT ADELAIDE

Inaugural coach: John Cahill
Record: 44 games, 19 wins, two draws, 23 losses (45.45 per cent win rate)

Rather than being started from scratch, Port Adelaide had a long and successful SANFL history when it was finally admitted into the AFL in 1997 after a failed and highly political bid in 1990. The man who had led the club through each of its bids as coach was John Cahill, who was already a colossal figure in SANFL and Port Adelaide history, having featured in 14 SANFL premierships with the club, including four as a player and 10 as a coach. As the club's existing SANFL coach in 1996, he was clearly the man to lead Port when its inaugural AFL season arrived in 1997. The culture of success he had fostered over decades saw the AFL team win 10 games and record a draw in its inaugural season, missing the finals by one game in a terrific result when compared to modern expansion teams. A further nine wins followed in 1998 before Cahill handed over to his understudy and eventual premiership coach Mark Williams. Cahill was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2002, with his reputation and contribution to Port Adelaide highlighted by the club naming its club champion award after him.

GOLD COAST

Inaugural coach: Guy McKenna, 2011-2014
Record: 88 games, 24 wins, 64 losses (27.27 per cent win rate)

In McKenna, Gold Coast opted for an unproven senior coach it hoped would grow with its band of teenage draftees. In his playing days, McKenna himself had been part of West Coast’s early years, being drafted by the club in 1988, 12 months after it entered the national competition, and played a leading role in the Eagles’ incredible rise. The reliable defender would not only play in two premierships but also be appointed club captain in a sign of his leadership. McKenna would coach Claremont in the WAFL before working under Mick Malthouse as an assistant at Collingwood from 2003-2008. The Suns would appoint the then 39-year-old to coach them in the TAC Cup and VFL before earning a contract to coach the inaugural AFL team in 2011. With a list comprised primarily of teenagers (the Suns did sign the game’s best player Gary Ablett along with seven other uncontracted players), wins were going to be few and far between. They won three games in 2011, three in 2012 and then eight in 2013. After starting 2014 with nine wins from 15 matches and a Finals spot beckoning, Ablett got injured and the wheels completely fell off, with McKenna sacked at season’s end.

GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY

Inaugural coach: Kevin Sheedy, 2012-2013
Record: 44 games, 3 wins, 41 losses (6.82 per cent win rate)

The Giants went for an icon of our game to start their journey in western Sydney. After winning three premierships as a player with Richmond, Sheedy would be an assistant coach there for one season (1980) before taking the reins at Essendon. There, he would go on to compile one of the most decorated coaching resumes in VFL/AFL history, leading the Bombers to four flags in 27 seasons from 634 games. After two years out of the game (2008-2009), Sheedy would help establish the Giants before they entered the AFL, almost as a part-time coach, part-time salesman in the competition’s newest frontier. Always an innovator across his career, Sheedy was seen as a man that could get cut through in Sydney’s extremely competitive market. When GWS officially joined the League in 2012, it was slim pickings for the young team with just one win (against fellow expansion team Gold Coast) and then two the following year. A succession plan involving Leon Cameron was already in place, paving the way for Sheedy to step aside after two seasons. He’d done his job, establishing a culture that would retain talented teenagers from interstate long-term and bear fruit with a finals appearance just three years later.