Former Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley believes club chairman David Koch went “a little bit too far” in proclaiming finals the Power’s pass mark for 2026.
New coach Josh Carr takes over from long-time boss Hinkley after a lengthy stint in the assistant coaching ranks, following the club’s worst season in over a decade.
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The Power won nine games in 2025 but were blown out by 12+ goals on five occasions and finished 13th on the ladder as the coaching handover from Hinkley was completed.
Despite that result, and an extremely quiet off-season in which the Power effectively ignored the draft and trade period, the always positive Koch declared a finals return was their pass mark in 2026.
“It’s always finals. We banned the word rebuild. Rebuild is an excuse for failure,” Koch told Seven.
“Josh knows that we’re a club that always wants to contend for finals, like so many of the other great AFL clubs – we should be no different.
“That’s always the pass mark, but you’ve got to put the processes in place for success. But we’ve got to put in the behaviours and the processes each and every day at training and every game to achieve the dream and the pass mark to make finals.”
Hinkley, in response, quipped on SEN’s Sportsday: “I’ve heard that before”.
Now working in the media, including as a Fox Footy commentator, Hinkley argued there were more nuanced ways to determine whether a season was successful than the binary of finals-or-bust.
“David’s intent is always great, and his willingness to talk up Port Adelaide and their opportunities and their chances is what you do want,” Hinkley said.
“I think just sometimes, you would just – borderline a little bit too far in Josh’s first year.
“We always at Port, and Port will always expect, to be part of the back end of the season and what you need to do initially is just win as many games as you can … and get there and see if you’re part of the finals.
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“Because there’s so many things that go into a successful season. We’ve had seasons where we didn’t make finals where you could look back and go, that was a pretty good season when you consider what we had to deal with, whether that’s injuries or draws, all those sorts of things that come your way.
“You might get terrible conditions in certain games and it plays against you. Percentage plays a role in making and not making finals. It’s so fine, the margin to make finals.
“I think there’s success in any footy club without necessarily making finals – I get it, ultimately everyone wants to win the premiership.
“Do you know there’s a 6% chance you’ll win the premiership at the start of the year? Not great odds, is it. If you’re a punter, which I’m a punter, I’m not taking those odds. But we took them every year.”
The Power open their season against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium on March 15.
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