How succession plan failed 'exhausted' Hinkley

Ken Hinkley's tenure as coach of Port Adelaide will come to an end with his worst season at the helm results wise, and the coaching succession plan put in place is a big reason for the struggles.

A frustrated Hinkley said he was "glad" it would all come to an end soon, after a full year in the club's succession plan handover, which will see assistant coach Josh Carr take over in 2026.

The Power finished second on the ladder last season, but will not even reach 10 wins 12 months on.

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It will be the first time Port Adelaide, while coached by Hinkley, has failed to win 10 games in a season.

They lost to a struggling Carlton side by 54 points in round 23, blew a lead against Fremantle in round 22, lost to Geelong by 88 points in round 21 and lost a Showdown to Adelaide by 98 points in round 20.

"I'm glad it (the end) is here now. To be honest, I'm sick of the wait. It's been a bit of a battle to get here," Hinkley said after his side's loss to the Blues.

Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd feels for a clearly "exhausted" Hinkley and believes he has been put in a tough spot.

"I've said before he's a coach, I would've loved to play under him because I love the emotion and the way he taps into emotion. You can't be an emotional coach all the time, I think that's probably been a problem for Port, where they ride waves of emotion," Lloyd told Nine's Footy Classified.

"But you can see Hinkley is exhausted. In my opinion, he hasn't been able to use that right throughout the year when you're a coaching knowing you're just coaching out time and you know you're going at the end of the year.

"It'll be interesting in terms of attracting players over the off-season. Can they attract players or are they a club that has really fallen down the list of where you want to go to."

Lloyd believes the Power should have made the move to Carr the moment they decided upon the succession plan, saying the incumbent coach now has a tougher job in 2026 because of how far the club has fallen this season.

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"The moment they thought Josh Carr was their man, I felt he should've been the coach. So, round 1 of this year," Lloyd told Nine's Footy Classified.

"Like what Sydney did with Dean Cox. Carr should've had a year under his belt in 2025.

"And that's where you'd be disappointed for Josh. He'd love to say 'you know what, I am the coach' like Andrew McQualter or Adem Yze 'it's on me', but it's hard to know where to lay the blame because of the confusion around the succession plan."

In 13 years under Hinkley, Port Adelaide has made five preliminary finals, but has not won any of them.

Since 2020, the Power have finished 1st, 2nd, 11th, 2nd and 3rd. They currently sit 13th with one game to go.

They'll be hoping to find some spark and energy to see off Hinkley and club great Travis Boak, when they host Gold Coast on Friday night.

A win would have huge ladder ramifications as the Suns must win one of their two round 24 games to make the eight.