It's a brave new world down at Alberton as the club, for the first time, prepares for a football season with a united football program. Matthew Agius sat down with Garry Hocking, the man charged with coaching the Magpies in 2014, to find out a little more about what he has been doing this pre-season, and what he wants to achieve this year...

OUTSIDERS are rarely appointed as the coach of Port Adelaide, irrespective of whether it's for the club's AFL or SANFL teams.

Ken Hinkley last year became the first 'outsider' since Fos Williams to coach the club's most senior side.

In Magpie land, there have been just two non-Portonians since the turn of the century.

Matthew Knights took over from Stephen Williams for one season in 2004, while Ken McGregor coached the club last year.

Now a great of the game on the national stage has taken the helm.

Garry Hocking is the new senior coach of the Magpies and he will lead the club into a bold, new, fully-integrated era of football.

For the first time since 1996, every contracted Port Adelaide player will play for the club at every level of the game.

Join the Magpies as a home game member in 2014 and see the club in action at Alberton Oval at weareportadelaide.com.au or call 1300 GO PAFC (1300 467 232) to upgrade your Power membership with Magpies home game access.

That means the club's AFL-listed players, when not named for the Power, will only play for the Magpies in the SANFL.

Take the nicknames out of it and you realise how significant this step in the club's history is. No more will players be shipped out to just any of the traditional SANFL clubs to play a different brand of football, with different teammates and coaches.

It gives stability to Port Adelaide at every level and that (as any of the club's greatest and most successful players will tell you) is what wins premierships for the club.

Hocking will preside over this new system as a senior coach of the club in the SANFL and as an integral part of Ken Hinkley's AFL coaching panel. He still has a crucial involvement at Power training, but is and is the man now responsible for ensuring the club's gameplan is executed at local level in 2014.

That's a big job, particularly when you bring in 15 SANFL-only players into the mix. They must be educated on the club gameplan and be brought up to the same level of fitness - no easy task when playing footy isn't their full time job.

But Hocking, as a man with over a decade of coaching experience since retiring from his playing career at Geelong, is the best man for this task.

He's coached at every level of the game - in charge of TAC Cup and underage development teams, right through to his role as caretaker coach of the Power at the end of 2012.

He's a competitive beast, for a guy who netted as many accolades as he did during the 1990s, it's probably no surprise!

But that's a good thing when you're coaching Port Adelaide, because you need to want to win.

In fact, you simply need to win.

That's what is expected of this club. That's what the famous black and white guernsey demands of you.

Hocking understands the importance of the Magpies - effectively Port Adelaide's heritage brand - to the club community. Port Adelaide people still love it, still hark back to the old days and the old ways and rightly despair at any hint of losing that heritage.

Clearly, the task is significant.

But Hocking understands football clubs and he understands this football club.

It exists to win premierships, and that's what he wants to do...

Matthew Agius: You were a senior AFL coach at the end of 2013 - albeit in a caretaker capacity - and now you're the senior coach of our SANFL squad. What does it mean to you to be presiding over the oldest continuous state league football club in Australia?

Garry Hocking: I think when I first accepted the job I said it was a great honour to coach the Magpies and it still is. There have been many great players and coaches to be involved in this club and it will mean a lot to me to look back in 15 years and see my name along those greats. We all want to do the club proud this year and I certainly want to deliver for Port Adelaide going forward.

MA: It's obviously a different makeup for the Magpies senior list this year, and certainly different compared to other teams you'll be playing against. What was your approach when it came to signing your first batch of players and managing the transition from the old structure to the new?

GH: Once I got stuck into the job, we sat down and had a look at last year's playing list and contacted everyone who was on it. There was a lot of unrest among our Magpies staff who didn't quite know what was happening throughout last year and who were hearing all sorts of different things with regard to what was going on. So we had to set the message straight to everyone about the process. We knew there would be a few bumps along the way and we needed to flatten them out to get us to where we are now. We were very up front and honest with the players about what our program would deliver and worked through what they wanted to get out of it. Some of that didn't suit some of the older boys because of the restrictions the SANFL placed on us, and which we agreed to as part of this new concept. We found as we kept going through the process that the program didn't suit everyone, so we shifted our focus and took into account who might be playing for us from the AFL list when trying to thrash out which players we wanted in our senior Magpies group.

MA: You signed up several established Magpies players who have played for the club at either League or Reserves level, but also a number of others from outside of the club, so clearly you are still focussed on building the best possible list to work with. Is it fair to say the club is still about having the best available talent playing for it in the SANFL?

GH: Point number one is that we want to give the players from last year who've chosen to train with us the best possible opportunity. We had 40 players train with us on the first night - some of them 18-year-olds who are still eligible to play in the underage competition - and then also members of last year's Reserves team who have been given a chance to step up into the League side and be contracted there. Of course, there were some players from last year's team who clearly performed well and deserved a contract. Summerton, Johansen and Sawford are just some of the games of players who have been contracted to the Magpies and have been rewarded for hard work this pre-season.

MA: What about guys like Anthony Biemans who have been brought in from outside of the club?

GH: That's point number two. From a list management point-of-view and to inject some freshness into the group, we've brought in a few other players. We had a lot of calls from all over the country with players who'd heard about the program and the opportunity it might be able to offer them in terms of facility use and coaching expertise. Biemans has settled in really well and he's a high quality kid. He captained a team over in Geelong - South Barwon - which has had a lot of success, and played alongside Matthew Scarlett, so that's quite an honour.

Matthew Venter played junior footy in WA, then rugby, so he's got a lot of the qualities you like to see in a small defender in terms of his speed and power. He's a bit of a project player.

We've still got to be mindful of the players who are still coming through the system, our under-18s, who we're trying to develop into good players who can potentially be offered one of those remaining contracts ahead of this season.

MA: Given the change in team makeup and the relative stability in most of your opposition, is there a chance you'll come into the season with the advantage of being the competition's unknown quantity?

GH: I think what we've seen over the past 12 to 18 months is a change in the talent and personnel in the SANFL teams. We know Norwood is outstanding, Central District has had a history of success in the last 10 to 12 years. As with every season, there's a number of new coaches in charge of these League sides and new players, so there's been a lot of change around the competition. The other clubs and coaches will know a lot about our AFL boys and will be sitting there planning and plotting because they'll have some idea of how our guys play. They won't probably know some of the guys like Venter and Biemans though, just as we won't know some of their new blokes from interstate this year. I don't think we have an advantage.

I will say is that what this new system with us and the Crows does offer the SANFL is a limit on the frustrations that the old system generated. The other teams won't have the angst of finding out which of our AFL players will be made available to them - sometimes on a Saturday or Sunday - and we will be able to play all of our boys in the same team. This system should be a win-win for both us and our opposition.

MA: Port Adelaide will play the same way at AFL and SANFL level this year, but you'll be the man in charge on the day, so you'll have the full length and breadth of decision-making power that a senior coach should have. Can you give a glimpse into what you want to see on game day this year?

GH: You're right in that we will be playing the same way with the Power and the Magpies, which certainly makes life easy when applying our gameplan at SANFL level. We'll have the same setups and stoppage structures, so you won't see too much change between the AFL and SANFL. But I want all of our players to go out there and play competitively, play well, and if they're on the Power's list I want them to put themselves in the best position to earn a recall. Ken has a really good strong list of young players to work with and everyone has been quick to impress on them the importance of playing good football.

Winning is clearly very important too and very important for player development, so I'll be doing everything I can from the box to make sure we take the points home.

MA: So for all intents and purposes we should see a pretty daring and exciting style of play from the Magpies this year?

GH: Yep, if we can get the ball!

MA: There are many coaches with AFL experience at the helm of SANFL clubs this year - Brad Gotch is at South, Nick Stevens at Glenelg, Ken McGregor at North. Do you think AFL philosophies will seep more and more into local footy as a result, particularly in terms of off-field professionalism and gameplay?

GH: I think the way Nathan Bassett coached Norwood in the last couple of years, especially with the way they set up and used the footy, had a lot of 'AFL' about it. I think that's what happens in the game anyway. I go down to Flinders Park and they're talking about 'pressing' and ball movement - that's not just seniors, but juniors as well. It filters its way down from AFL to the state leagues, then your amateur and junior leagues, and it's really no suprise when you consider how saturated the AFL game is across the media. There's numerous ways anyone can get information about the way teams are playing. I would expect a lot of AFL tactics to be implemented in the League this year, irrespective of who's coaching the teams.

MA: How has the new Academy program assisted the club and the club's community so far?

GH: We've been very fortunate to have Jacob Surjan, a former vice captain of this club, take control of that program. He's complimented by a good coaching panel as well, so it makes sense for any aspiring young athlete out there at the age of 16, 17 or 18 to come and play under the Magpies banner, develop their football further and try and get to the highest level they can. We try to educate them and give them a pathway - either to senior League football or as another way to get into the AFL if a player isn't picked up in the draft.

MA: Summerton, Slattery, Raikiwasa and Biemans were announced as leaders on Wednesday. What have they done for the club this pre-season and what will they do going forward?

GH: The first three you mention are going to know a fair bit about the club and our supporters would know about them too. Summo's played 137 games and is pretty experienced by SANFL standards. He's stepped into the captain's role and set a great example for the younger kids in the group - he will continue to lead from the front. Slatts has AFL experience, has played at the Magpies before and was a person who we wanted to hang on to. It's great to have a guy like him around because he complements Summo and is a real professional with the way he goes about everything. Raikiwasa is aspiring to play at the highest level and has probably had a little disappointment not being placed on an AFL list, but his work at the club is highly respected and regarded. What he does on the field is really good and he's another who sets an example for our younger kids. Biemans is a new bloke who not many supporters will know, as I said before he's captained South Barwon but he's also been involved in TAC Cup and with Geelong's VFL side so he brings a lot of experience to the club as well.

MA: Lastly, you take on the reigning premiers and this club's biggest SANFL rival in the first game of the year. What do you want to get our of that game?

GH: Norwood are the best and they'll give us a real test. That game will give us a benchmark as to where we sit as a group, a team and a club. Then it's Glenelg in Round 2 at Alberton, so it's a tough start but one that will give us a real insight into where we're at, how competetive we're going to be and who will be part of our group for the year ahead.