That proposal, if successful, would see the club’s current SANFL structures from under-13s through to its League team retained.
It would also include the retention of its SANFL development programs and structures in both the Port and on the state’s west coast.
In reality, the only real change to the club’s current operations is that all of its AFL-listed players would become aligned to its SANFL division.
It is a small but significant change generating much debate in South Australia’s football landscape.
If the model is not approved by at least six of the eight SANFL clubs, Port Adelaide would retain the status-quo, as publicly declared by chairman David Koch on Friday.
This means players drafted to the club’s AFL division could then be ‘mini-drafted’ or aligned to any of the nine SANFL teams and play there when not selected to play for the Power.
It also means not pursuing a standalone ‘reserves’ team in the state League competition without its junior structures place.
Why? Because the club will not cast aside its 143-year tradition of enabling local boys from the club’s heartland pursuing opportunities to train and play for the club in the SANFL and, if drafted to the Power, the AFL.
After all, that’s the whole reason the club was established back in 1870: as a social sporting club for young men in the Port community.
Be they from Glanville or Alberton, Ceduna or the Port itself any young player in the club’s SANFL recruiting boundary can aspire to don the prison bars.
Enter Hinkley.
Speaking after Port Adelaide’s Round 16 AFL game on Saturday, the Power’s senior coach voiced his support for the club’s current stance.
“If you gave me anything I want, I’d want the Port Adelaide Football Club to be one club,” Hinkley said on Saturday.
“That’s what I’d love.
“And I’d love that to be Port Adelaide in the SANFL with our players playing for Port Adelaide.”
If the club’s proposed model is not approved by a three-quarters majority of the SANFL league directors, it will be disadvantaged on the national stage.
It means the club, if Adelaide’s ‘reserves’ proposal is accepted, will be the only club amongst the AFL’s 18 teams to not have a standalone ‘reserves’ operation in place for 2014.
It’s not a position that Hinkley wants to be in, in an ideal world.
But he has truly embraced the history and ethos of Port Adelaide since arriving in October 2012.
Members of Port Adelaide's first team in 1870 with patron Captain John Hart (centre) - the club was originally formed as a sporting social club for young men in the Port district.
Hinkley agrees with the club’s chairman David Koch who said on Friday there were some things more important than footy when it comes to the principles of the game.
Those things are the values and traditions that form the heart and soul of clubs.
For Port Adelaide it’s the Magpies in the SANFL and it will not abandon that heritage or the junior and community links it has established in its heartland throughout the last 143 years.
“I know the tradition of the footy club, the history of the footy club,” said Hinkley.
“We want to play here, we want our side to play together - that’s our club.
“This football club is called Port Adelaide and we have to make sure this club stays strong right through the SANFL and the AFL.”
Earlier on the weekend Hinkley told ABC Grandstand his knowledge of the club’s history and the importance of that history to its members, supporters and the community informed his support for the club’s stance.
He described it simply as “the right call” for the club to retain the heritage that built it into a South Australian powerhouse and led to its AFL promotion in 1996.
It’s that heritage that Hinkley says makes the club a “perfect fit” for his ambitions.
Those ambitions are to win an AFL premiership at the helm of the club.
It correlates perfectly with the famous ethos at the heart of the club’s operations, which adorn the walls of the Fos Williams Family Stand and the Allan Scott Power Headquarters:
‘We Exist to Win Premierships’
“I did know a fair bit about Port Adelaide, it’s a great club,” said Hinkley.
“I grew up knowing about Port Adelaide and how successful they’ve been, so even from a distance I knew the Port Adelaide history and how successful this club was.
“Port Adelaide’s got an incredible tradition, and we’re really proud about that, but we want to make sure we keep building on it.
“For me I just love the way this club’s been built, it’s almost a perfect fit for me to be honest.
“My background, their background, we almost belong I reckon.”
With Hinkley vocal in support for the club’s stance on its ‘reserves’ model, the Port Adelaide community can be confident it has a football club committed to preserving its contribution to grassroots football development in the area.
There are 143 good reasons for that commitment after all.
