Kane Cornes and David King react to Port Adelaide coaching succession plan reports

Kane Cornes has given his reaction to reports that Port Adelaide could announce a coaching succession plan before the start of the 2025 season.

The Adelaide Advertiser is reporting that the Power will announce Josh Carr as their coach for 2026 and beyond, taking over from the out-of-contract Ken Hinkley.

Speaking with David King on SEN Breakfast, Cornes discussed the potential move, whether Hinkley should have received a two-year extension to begin with and the way Port Adelaide has tried to stealthily handle this transition.

King: “Are we saying this is formalising the handover or is there more to it and the handover is more immediate than we think?”

Cornes: “My interpretation of the story is that it will formally be announced that Josh Carr is the next senior coach when Josh Carr hands it over at the end of the year. It’s not saying they’re going to sack Ken Hinkley now.”

Cornes: “We’ve put a call into the club and asked for David Koch or Chris Davies to come on the show, they said they won’t be responding to a speculative piece. So they’ve called the story speculative.”

Cornes: “Is it a big deal? I’ve been telling you Josh Carr is going to be the next coach of Port Adelaide for three years.”

King: “I think you’ve just got to be clear. One thing I don’t like is clubs leaving a coach, not necessarily swinging in the breeze, but you’ve got to have absolute clarity about this. You need all the players and staff knowing where it sits and do it as quick as possible.”

King: “I do think you need to make some sort of comment on this. It may be a speculative piece, but it’s about your senior coach. We talk a lot about re-signing your senior coach and making sure they’ve got clear air and their only focus is winning a premiership. These sorts of things, if they’re allowed to fester and bubble away, can be a distraction you don’t need.”

King: “These things are like a band-aid. You’ve just got to rip them off. If you’re making the change, make the change. I love what Sydney have done. They gave John Longmire a role that is meaningful for the business, but he’s not coaching and bang in comes Dean Cox.”

Cornes: “I don’t disagree with any of that, honestly. I don’t think they have been as transparent as they should have been with this. Josh Carr was appointed as assistant coach in 2023. The talk then was that he had been guaranteed the coaching job.”

Cornes: “Now, things went pretty well for Ken and he got the two-year contract extension and then the talk has festered, but not one has actually come out and said what the deal is. Was it a handshake deal? Was it ticked off by the board? They would say no, but everything you hear is that Josh Carr is the next senior coach. I don’t know why they’re hiding this. Stories like this fester and bubble away to the point where I agree with you, they must come out and say this.”

Cornes: “There may have been an opportunity to do something similar to what Sydney has done.”

King: “It’s the only way to do it.”

Cornes: “I think the club needs to be more transparent about what their plans are. The second part to this is – as much as Josh Carr’s resume is perfect and he’s ready to go as a senior coach, have you closed the door to other options? Have you closed the door to John Longmire? Have you closed the door to Chris Scott or Nathan Buckley? Has your focus been too narrow on Josh at the cost of a John Longmire. That would be the other question.”

King: “Is he definitely better than Adam Simpson? Or any of those guys of that ilk? I don’t understand it. This club, they just do things in a totally different fashion to other clubs. The re-signing of Ken Hinkley in August is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen in footy.”

Cornes: “Other clubs have done that. Adelaide signed Matthew Nicks for two years when he still had a full season ahead of him and they then finished bottom four.”

King: “I’m not worried about all of that stuff. They assessed Ken on the home-and-away season. They went out in straight sets.”

Cornes: “So did Adelaide with Nicks and so did Fremantle with Justin Longmuir. Adelaide finished bottom four. Fremantle missed the finals. They didn’t need to extend Longmuir.”

King: “Hinkley has been there for over 10 years, it’s a different discussion to the normal. I think you’re blinkered a little bit with that.”

Cornes: “I’m just saying it’s commonplace for clubs to extend coaches unnecessarily.”

King: “On an August assessment when we were all saying he needed finals success. Straight sets wasn’t that. And you just re-signed him three weeks ago. Now they get the opportunity here to come clean with their fans. It’s their footy club. This always baffles me, the secrecy at footy clubs – who are you keeping the secret from? The people that pay the bills?”