SOMETIMES, the footy gods align the planets in weird ways.

Travis Boak and Ken Hinkley – the captain-coach duo that has guided Port Adelaide since 2013 - bring up their respective centuries in their roles in China this weekend.

Throw back to that famous win at the MCG in Melbourne in 2013 when their club leadership kicked-off, and you’d be pressed to think that a joint-milestone in a foreign country was possible.

After all, China hadn't even come as an agenda item at Alberton back then.And when  

And when you reflect more on Boaky’s one-game injury lay-offs in the first years of his captaincy, and Kenny’s obscure ban on travelling to Tassie due to illness in 2013, surely only the most divinely-inspired footy fanatics would've predicted the planets to align like this.

But align they have.

Boaky is now Port Adelaide's most-capped AFL captain, having overtaken Warren Tredrea earlier this year.

Ken still has a way to go before catching Choco as the Power's leading coach though, with M. Williams still leading the coaching table with 274 games.

Of course, neither captain nor coach would dwell much on their personal achievements this week, rather, each reflected on the other’s career.

Boak on Hinkley...

“It's pretty exciting, it's Ken's 100th as coach, it's going to be a special moment,” Boak said this week.

“We pretty much started the journey together and the majority of this group are the same.

“Since we've started we've progressed as a club and that's been a really exciting journey to be part of and Ken's been a huge, huge part of that.

“You could ask any player at our club that's played under Kenny and they would say the same thing, they absolutely love him.

“He's been a huge part of moving this club forward.”

Hinkley on Boak...

And on the other side of the relationship, Ken is full of nothing but praise for Boaky’s leadership.

“The challenge to us is to make sure we're better than just a challenging football team, we need to be one of the teams at the top of the ladder, and that's a box we haven't ticked.

“He's more than just your captain,” Hinkley said.

“They [captains] become your son, an extra part of the family, and Trav's exactly that to me.

“I'm proud of who he is as a person - not just a footballer - I've said that over and over again and I mean it.

"He's been a fantastic captain for us as a football club. When Trav took over the job, the club had come out of some pretty dark times.

“From the time he's taken over as captain, the club has only grown - we've got 60,000 members, we're playing a game in Shanghai, we're doing lots of good things as a football club, and we've been a more than competitive football team.”

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