{"id":816098,"date":"2026-07-22T07:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/816098\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T07:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:55:16","slug":"from-the-pocket-ken-hinkley-can-be-the-football-father-and-coach-tasmania-devils-need-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/816098\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Pocket: Ken Hinkley can be the football father and coach Tasmania Devils need | AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ken Hinkley was in his element. He was in the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, flicking the journos to third man and fine leg. He already sounded like a local. He was already trafficking in the \u201cwe\u201d, in the \u201cus against the mainland\u201d, in the \u201cich bin Tasmanian\u201d. His handover at Port Adelaide had been so scripted, so corporate, so Koschy. He had impressed, and probably burnished his coaching credentials, during his brief stint in the media. But he always seemed raring to get back into the real stuff.<\/p>\n

To understand why Hinkley was chosen as Tasmania\u2019s first coach<\/a>, it\u2019s worth looking at the men who missed out. Nathan Buckley was the firm early favourite, but perhaps lacked the ability to be a salesman, to charm the birds from the trees, to \u201cspruik the gospel\u201d as Devils CEO Brendon Gale says. John Longmire has taken a team to five grand finals, but has a cushy role at the Sydney Swans, and seems more relaxed than he has in two decades. Both Buckley and Hinkley always seemed more prepared to upend their lives, to move to the island, and to start a team from scratch.<\/p>\n

Winning over the locals: Ken Hinkley speaks to the media in Hobart. Photograph: Steve Bell\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The announcement felt like a love-in this week. We heard dozens of times what a father figure and master connecter he is, none of which can be disputed. But his coaching has been a source of contention<\/a> over the years, and not just from Port supporters waving placards. When he was hired, the club was in disarray, and the team had won eight of its past 44. Hinkley made them relevant and watchable again. He won nearly 60% of his games at Port Adelaide. He convinced a lot of them that they were better footballers than they actually were. But he never quite reached the mountaintop \u2013 partly because of his own rigidity, partly due to forces beyond his control. His teams were always lacking something \u2013 an ounce of luck, another key defender or forward, a more flexible gameplan. In big games, there was always a Clarkson, a Hardwick or a Beveridge standing in their way \u2013 a cannily coached team able to pick holes and pinpoint weaknesses.<\/p>\n

Hinkley was a gloriously attacking footballer and the quintessential Malcolm Blight player \u2013 to hell with your opponent, back your instincts and your talent. And the wild spirit of Blight coursed through his coaching veins, sometimes to his detriment in big games. They pressed high, they played on emotion, and they were an easy team to scout. The closest they came was a nerve-shredding, rain-drenched, low-scoring preliminary final loss to Richmond in 2020. They went in as warm favourites against the Western Bulldogs the following year, but were torpedoed in the opening 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

None of that disqualified Hinkley from the Tasmania job. The role demanded someone who could win over the locals, which he did in about 20 minutes. It demanded someone who could foster a siege mentality, an edge that the Gold Coast Suns never had and still don\u2019t have. And it demanded someone who could connect with young footballers \u2013 who could identify them, nurture them and retain them. It demanded someone who could sell them a story and a purpose. Not only that, it demanded someone who could sell the same story to managers, to parents, to partners and to an entire island. And Hinkley is a very persuasive man in that regard.<\/p>\n

Hinkley celebrates after Port Adelaide beat Hawthorn in Adelaide in 2024. Photograph: Matt Turner\/AAP<\/p>\n

When Hinkley told Blight that he wanted to be a coach, his former mentor told him to take on the worst country team he could find, to see if he really had the passion. This job is a far cry from that. He\u2019ll get a lot of generous draft concessions and he\u2019ll be coaching in a state where football matters. But it won\u2019t be an easy role. The training and administration centre will not be built when the 2028 preseason starts. Tasmanian politics is unpredictable and indecipherable. Considerable uncertainty remains around the stadium, the roof, the economic climate, and the capacity of the state to actually pay for it.<\/p>\n

When it comes to senior coaches, it\u2019s a buyer\u2019s market right now. Three former premiership coaches are available. There\u2019s also Buckley, who took his team to a grand final and a preliminary final. There\u2019s a strong pool of assistants who have been in the mix for other roles. And there\u2019s James Hird, who\u2019s in an entire category of his own. Each club is looking for something different. Essendon wants an Essendon person. Carlton wants to avoid the mistakes of the past. Richmond and North Melbourne may eventually want someone who can build on the drudge work of the rebuild.<\/p>\n

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Tasmania wanted something else altogether. \u201cI\u2019m a football coach,\u201d Hinkley told Gale when they first met. \u201cI don\u2019t know too much else.\u201d He was selling himself short there, and both of them knew it. This role demands much more than being a football coach, which is precisely why Hinkley was a right man for the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ken Hinkley was in his element. He was in the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, flicking the journos to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-816098","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\/816098","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=816098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}