Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley suggests the AFL adopt an NRL-style player movement model

Now in the media with Fox Footy and SEN after his 13-seasons in charge of the Power, Hinkley has been asked about the future of Port’s star vice-captain Zak Butters on multiple occasions already given their strong relationship.

Butters’ current deal expires at the end of this year and if he stays unsigned he will become a restricted free agent.
Speaking at the Kayo Sports Adelaide AFL Lunch on Monday, Hinkley predicted Butters would wait until the end of the season to make his decision.

“Everyone is going to want an answer and they aren’t going to get one,” he said.

“I reckon Zak will wait until the footy season is played out properly and then he will sit down and he will go through the pluses and minuses of everything that he wants to do.

“If he goes back to Victoria there are 10 clubs who want him and if he choses to stay at Port Adelaide he will not miss out financially and he can stay and play with his mates who he loves a lot.”

Butters will likely be one of the most sought-after free agents in recent years with the 25-year-old one of the best players in the competition, having won the Power’s last three best-and-fairest awards and named as an All-Australian twice.

In response to fellow Fox Footy expert, Crows legend Mark Ricciuto asking if players should be able to come out and announce their movement before the end of the season Hinkley said they should be able to like their NRL counterparts.

“I do... I am a big proponent for being honest,” he said.

“Payne Haas, nearly the best player in the competition who plays for the Brisbane Broncos and won the premiership (last year) he has already said he is going to South Sydney Rabbitohs to play for Wayne Bennett next year.

“He is going to play this season (for Brisbane). I think they are used to it and in AFL we aren’t used to it and I think everyone would say the opposite (to me).

“It’s only because we don’t know what that looks and feels like.”

The debate about whether the AFL should adopt a NRL-type model when it comes to player movement was ignited last year when the then West Coast captain Oscar Allen met with Hawthorn senior coach Sam Mitchell.

The former AFLPA boss Paul Marsh said the response to Allen’s meeting – he ended up moving to Brisbane in the off-season – showed that footy could not handle in-season player movement announcements.

Hinkley said this wouldn’t change how players approached games.

“The game is all about players having the availability to move whenever they need to,” he said.

“Contracts are great but they don’t really hold you to too much.

“If a player wants out you tend to have to deal with that and if a player wants to come to you, you tend to be able to get them.

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“And as a coach you are always talking to them, whether they are at your club or not at your club.

“I have had players where I have known before the end of the season were going to leave the club and I would hope that I treated them with the absolute respect and care they deserved because they gave me everything when they were out there playing.

“When they are out playing for you everything they have inside of them is for you and nothing will change that is what they do.”