This is not a Showdown - Crows coach Brenton Sanderson chats with new Power coach Ken Hinkley. Picture: Wayne Ludbey. Source: Herald Sun
THEY orchestrated premierships together, became close mates through their roles in Geelong's dynasty, and it is a bond that won't break easily.
With Brenton Sanderson coaching the Crows and Ken Hinkley in charge of the Power, the chemistry of the rivalry will be different. More grown-up, more realising that for the good of football in South Australia, both of the clubs need to travel well.
We were all up in Queensland this week, looking for shade in the heat, and sat down when there was a quiet minute in proceedings at Metricon Stadium.
Here's how the conversation went:
FJELDSTAD: Brenton, are you happy with how the club has weathered the storm (of alleged salary cap breaches and draft tampering), so to speak?
SANDERSON: It's been difficult for the club, I guess because they haven't been able to comment. And I know that everybody's really eager to get out and say exactly what's going on but obviously with the AFL investigation to take place, we can't really comment.
All we can do . . . from my point of view, all I can do is to play my role which is just to coach the team. The players have been outstanding.
We got back to training this week and the spirit was really good and the energy really great amongst the group again. We'll just sort of wait and see and I'm sure you will hear a lot more from the club once the investigation is complete.
FJELDSTAD: Now that you've been there for a year, how do you see the club and the list now?
SANDERSON: I guess it's been a big 12 months and I was just saying that to Kenny before.
The amount of work that you put in behind the scenes - nobody is really prepared for how much work you have to do. But last year was a great stepping stone to what is hopefully another good season. Now we've got to manage expectation. There wasn't much expectation for us the past season but to the boys' credit, from the first day of the season until the final minute of the prelim final, you know, they were outstanding.
I think they understand now the work that has to be done. We've got 11 weeks now to prepare for our first NAB Cup game and obviously the season proper.
I'm still quite confident that we're going to have another good season.
FJELDSTAD: Kenny, what's it been like? It's only been a month or so but I'm sure it's taken over your life.
HINKLEY: It has. It's been incredibly busy. I mean I've gone from living here on the Gold Coast to all of a sudden being in Milan and London and back in Adelaide and now back on the Gold Coast and amongst all of that trying to get to know a whole new football club, a group of players, preparing for a draft.
All the things that have been going on there hasn't been a spare moment. The family has had to deal with a fair bit of stuff going on as well. But for me it's been really exciting, really challenging and something I've always wanted to do.
Now I've got a chance to deliver on that and I've really enjoyed the start.
FJELDSTAD: How do you two see your relationship - do you need to have a good relationship in order to push football in South Australia? Either one of you blokes can answer this one.
SANDERSON: We do (need to have a good relationship). And Kenny would be the same.
There would be nothing better than at Adelaide Oval in two years . . . can you imagine the excitement of a prelim of an Adelaide versus Port Adelaide at an Adelaide Oval on a Friday night?
The state would just be pumping, you know, going crazy for that. I guess from a selfish point of view I'd love for both teams to be up in the eight but like I said to Kenny, whenever Port Adelaide plays the Crows there's certainly a bit of rivalry.
That's always going to be the case. But most weeks, we'll probably stay in contact and support each other behind the scenes. But it will be game on when we the Crows play Port.
FJELDSTAD: Do you call each other?
HINKLEY: I should answer that. Sando, very quickly after I managed to get the job, was quite quick to get on the phone and leave a message and wish me all the best and all of those things.
And then give me an opportunity to talk when everything had settled down. We've both actually been away in the last four weeks so it hasn't happened but this is a great opportunity for us to catch up. We've obviously worked together for a long period of time (at Geelong) and had success together and now we both probably want to have some success, no doubt.
We'll have some individual focus on our own clubs and we need to make sure that both of those clubs are preparing to do their best but I don't think that means that we can't use each other, I would've thought. Certainly for me, in my first 12 months, I'm lucky.
I've got a bloke (in Sanderson) who's just gone through what I'm about to go through who can give me all of those experiences in a small way.
It might just be that he tells me: "you've got to be ready for this, you've got to be ready for that".
We've had those conversations already but it's still up to me to live it.
But it's good to have someone really close by that I know has been exactly through what I'm going to go thorough.
FJELDSTAD: Same question for both of you, different circumstances. You've both been through some difficult times: you (to Sanderson) with the investigation and you (to Hinkley) with financial concerns. How do you deal with it?
SANDERSON: I guess from my point of view, and Kenny would be the same, externally things get built up, through the media and people sometimes reading a lot into it.
But when you're at training and amongst the group - the players and their energy and enthusiasm is fantastic, so it doesn't affect any of that.
Port would be exactly the same as us: they'll go and train and train their backsides off to improve and all we can do is coach them. The other stuff will look after itself.
HINKLEY: That's exactly right. All we can concern ourselves with is the training session we turn up to and getting something from.
That's something we've spoken about already: to improve every session we get out there. We're doing the best to improve our club and improve our list and make sure that we improve the whole environment for us as a football club in Adelaide.
That's really important to us but we can't control too much of the other stuff.
We'll do everything we can to make sure the footy side of our club is done really well.
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