Dwayne Russell believes the Port Adelaide Football Club finds itself in a precarious position.
2020 marks the club’s 150th year in existence and with it comes the added desire to achieve success in such a significant season.
Success is something that is expected of Port Adelaide who have a healthy tradition of winning SANFL premierships but that dominance hasn't fully translated in the AFL, particularly recently.
The Power have disappointed over the past few years by finishing 10th in both 2018 and 2019 which is making the natives restless and is beginning to cause a stir off-field.
Former Port player Russell believes they also have the unenviable task of juggling the old mentality with a new age approach.
Asked on SEN Breakfast if the club has settled down after a tumultuous year, Russell said: “I don’t think so, no.
“I don’t think that anybody is of the understanding as to what a big year they’ve got with their 150th anniversary. They’re a club that’s looking to go forward and almost break out of the old mould of the old traditional club because they have to branch out and become ‘the Power’ with teal.
“Yet they’ve got this situation where they also have to embrace the past and keep all of the past people happy and 150 years of history is something that they also have to honour deeply.
“So, they are caught in between becoming the new club and the new franchise and being progressive and also being a team that honours some of the main traditions of the past, like a one captain.”
There are suggestions that the Power could revert back to a single captain following supporter backlash when Tom Jonas and Ollie Wines were appointed co-skippers for the 2019 season and the traditional captain’s number 1 guernsey was momentarily retired.
Russell also commented on Power coach Ken Hinkley and where he currently sits in the overall landscape at Alberton.
“The beauty of Ken right now is he knows what his parameters are,” he added.
“He makes the finals, he stays. He doesn’t make the finals, he goes.
“I don’t think there’s a better coach out there than Ken right now for Port Adelaide, and I’m on the record saying that, but at the same time I understand that if he doesn’t make the finals this year, they might have to make a change.”
Listen to Dwayne on SEN Breakfast below: