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Why Port’s succession plan could be a “recipe for disaster” at Alberton
Lachlan Geleit • February 15th, 2025 3:30 pm
Garry Lyon is worried about how the Ken Hinkley-Josh Carr succession plan could play out at Port Adelaide.
The Power announced Carr as their coach-in-waiting on Wednesday as Hinkley’s contract comes to an end at the end of the 2025 season.
While Carr is highly rated as an assistant and has long been considered a future head coach, Lyon pondered how things will sit at Alberton if Hinkley has the side humming at the top of the ladder late in the 2025 home and away season.
He discussed the succession plan with Tim Watson on SEN Breakfast where he expressed his concern that things could turn ugly as they did at Collingwood in 2011 where Mick Malthouse led the Magpies to a minor premiership and Grand Final before Nathan Buckley took over in 2012.
Lyon: “What is this business about Ken Hinkley and Josh Carr? Tell me what's happening there.
Watson: “There’s a Kirribilli-type agreement that has happened in the background, and that is that Carr will take over from Hinkley at the end of this year.
“So Ken Hinkley will coach this year because he’s at the end of his contract.”
Lyon: “It's a recipe for disaster, isn't it? What if Ken Hinkley coaches them and they’re 18-2?”
Watson: “Well, he's out still, his contract will end.
“He may have come to the end of it like John Longmire did and said, ‘I’ve decided I’ve got one more year … and that will do me. I want to make sure that with Josh in the final year of my coaching, I give him more and more responsibility and he takes over the reins by the end of the year’.”
Hinkley is the longest serving coach in Power history having been in the hot seat since the 2013 season. Carr arrived at Alberton ahead of the 2023 season after a stint as an assistant with Fremantle.
The Power begin their season with a Round 1 clash against Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday, March 15.
