Ken Hinkley's faith in Port Adelaide's campaign

How will Port Adelaide perform in 2026?

Off the back of a subpar campaign in 2025, the Power enter a new era under Josh Carr, shifting from long-term head coach Ken Hinkley after 13 years in charge.

With a fresh coaching panel, the club, led by captain Connor Rozee and upcoming free agent Zak Butters, aren’t predicted to perform to their lofty standards as they have over the course of the 2020’s thus far.

However, as expressed by their now-former coach, Hinkley has urged the competition not to write off the Power too soon.

“It was only two years ago that they were prelim finalists with the same group of players and squad. There’s not much change,” he told SEN Sportsday.

“If the best players play to their best for the whole season, and it’s a big ask to get that out of them – they are a very, very capable side.

"Particularly playing at Adelaide Oval – they get 12 games or something at Adelaide Oval because of Gather Round and another Showdown.

“I think they are still capable, but there is plenty of people that are experts on the game as well who look at them and think perhaps it will be a bit of a struggle.”

Despite a range of top talents, the former Port Adelaide coach believes that the club is looking to invest in youth, limiting their ceiling in the short term while building for the long term.

That said, Hinkley believes that the Power are more than capable of making a return to September football.

“To me, and this is me outside because I’ve been outside for six months – I don’t know the inside information to this. But I would suggest that they are preparing a bit more youth that might make it a little bit more challenging this year,” he said.

“But their best can get them up to sixth to tenth without too many issues. With a favourable draw, if everything goes well, no issues.

“We had 20 injuries last year from January until the end of August. You need a bit of luck, but if they get a bit of luck, and Josh I know will have them flying and have them having a crack in, they’ll be giving themselves a chance.”

In one of the more shocking news stories of the off-season, former Rising Star Jaidyn Stephenson was denied an SSP selection by the club after training with Port Adelaide throughout the off-season.

What once was reported as “$1.03 odds”, Stephenson’s rejection came as a surprise to fans and the wider AFL community, with the talented former Roo and Pie clearly flaunting enough ability to return to a high level of AFL football.

Instead, Port Adelaide opted to sign 19-year-old Norwood defender Balyn O’Brien and East Fremantle forward Mitch Zadow, leaving one list spot open with just over a week until the official SSP deadline.

Hinkley isn’t surprised by the club’s decision.

“It sounded like he was going to be getting an opportunity from everyone outside – the Adelaide media that are out there watching them train every day,” he said.

“I said before, if you go back to where they think they are at as a footy club, I think youth is probably their preference at the moment.

“They brought in young players last year, they’ve got two younger players – 21 and 19, the two boys that they’ve listed. They are prioritising youth to me.

“Jaidyn plays small forward. Joe Richards, Darcy Byrne-Jones, Tommy Cochrane’s another great young kid, Corey Durdin… they’ve got a lot of players there in that spot, so maybe that went a bit more list balanced with backs and things like that.

“From the outside, I wasn’t surprised, but the information that was being produced suggests that it should have been a surprise.”