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The former Port Adelaide coach held the reins at Alberton for 13 seasons in a largely successful run from 2013 to 2025, with a 59 per cent win rate including seven finals series and four prelims.<\/p>\n
However an elusive premiership, and even a grand final appearance, is the only thing missing from Hinkley\u2019s otherwise glittering CV.<\/p>\n
Instead of that being viewed as a shortcoming, it\u2019s believed the 59-year old pitched it as something that adds extra motivation when he met with Devils officials including a visit to Hobart on Sunday. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe went down there today and did a two-hour presentation, it was his first trip to Hobart. But the reality is they\u2019ve been keen on Ken for months and there were clues as far back as Gather Round that he might be their man,\u201d chief Herald Sun reporter Jay Clark said on Fox Footy\u2019s The First Crack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe missing link in what is a great football CV is obviously the flag… but he sold that to the Devils, not as a weakness, but as a strength.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s desperate to take a club to the top and that fire still burns. In fact, I think he said he would still crawl over hot coals to win a premiership at AFL level.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, while some may see that as a void in the resume, I think he sold it very much the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ken Hinkley is set to be named Tasmania\u2019s inaugural coach (Photo by Sarah Reed\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Hinkley\u2019s traits as a \u201cunifier and connector\u201d are seen as why he was such an appealing option for the Devils to drive interest in the new club and \u201cunite\u201d the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a super power to make any player to feel 10-foot tall and bulletproof. So, this is really the grandfather effect for the Tasmania Football Club,\u201d Clark continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted a statesman, someone to unite the whole state and to sell the football club across the whole island. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll be driving out to the pie nights at the footy clubs to be dealing with the kids, he loves all that stuff because he\u2019s so passionate about the game. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople will say: \u2018At 59, are his best coaching days behind him?\u2019 Well, can I bring the table Chris Fagan? Who won his first flag at 63 and this year is shooting for three-straight premierships and four-straight grand finals at the age of 65.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, Ken Hinkley would strongly say he\u2019s still got some of his best coaching days ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young Dons star sent to hospital | 00:14<\/p>\n
Kangaroos great David King thinks Hinkley\u2019s passion as a \u201cgreat promoter\u201d and \u201centertainer\u201d and father-figure attributes make him the ideal leader for Tassie in the early years when the club is faced with challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to be good for us,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they\u2019re going to go through some times where they\u2019re not going to be the easiest sell.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to have some tough roads early, they\u2019re going to have a group of young players that are going to need pumping up and need to connect together and unite and feel attachment to the state of Tasmania. And that\u2019s going to be a challenge. <\/p>\n
\u201cThen there\u2019s (player) retention on top of that. That will be a club-wide challenge, not just for Ken.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat I think is his strong suit. I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s a separating factor between John Longmire, Ken Hinkley or Nathan Buckley. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I do feel that\u2019s a great fit and we probably all warmed to the late. I think it\u2019s a really good appointment, a natural fit.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Though King sympathised for Buckley, who was widely viewed as the frontrunner for the Tassie gig for some time and returned to clubland this year as an assistant at Geelong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably thought for two or three years that this was (Buckley\u2019s) job,\u201d the Roos legend added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was almost: \u2018OK, you upskill yourself, get yourself back on the tools for a while, and it\u2019s yours\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we were talking about Buckley to (Scott) Pendlebury and all sorts of things for a while. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I feel a bit for Nathan. But this is a great day for Tasmanian football and Ken Hinkley.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Western Bulldogs champion Brad Johnson is fascinated by the coaching team Hinkley puts around him as the veteran coach begins to plot his supporting cast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coaching panel is the next side of things here I think which is really important for Ken Hinkley to get right,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cChris Fagan has a group of assistants that are really strong behind him. So he can manage the group and they can help coach the direction. <\/p>\n
\u201cBecause if a lot of his time is going to be spent doing a lot of the other bits and pieces that Tasmania football needs at the very beginning, he\u2019s going to have to have others that fill the gap in between to help set things up for the footy club.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut congratulations to Ken, it\u2019s a huge appointment for the state of Tasmania as they push forward to getting their side out on the park.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ken Hinkley sold the premiership void in his football resume as a \u201cstrength\u201d to the Tasmania Devils with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-810343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}