OF the 37 premierships that define the Port Adelaide Football Club, 23 are crafted by three men: John Cahill (10), Fos Williams (nine) and Sampson "Shine" Hosking (four, plus a war league flag).

All three men have another remarkable similarity in their coaching resumes - multiple terms at Alberton; they each took their coaching philosophies to West Adelaide and South Adelaide and to a fourth bench: Cahill at VFL club Collingwood; Williams to the SA State team 45 times and Hosking to West Torrens (where he collected his fifth SANFL premiership as a coach).

All three have living legacies.

Williams with the Creed written in 1962 on his return to Port Adelaide (after being at South Adelaide in 1960) as a non-playing coach.

Cahill with the transformation of Port Adelaide from the SANFL to the AFL with his "expect to win" mantra - and repeat strings of premierships that define the club's expectations.

Hosking with perhaps the first coaching manual in Australian football. The typed notes run for 17 pages - and along with a general overview of how to play the game, Hosking detailed a player's needs position by position.

Forwards to always keep moving - lose your man. If within kicking distance, take plenty of time, steady yourself and shoot for goal. Do not kick to a man in a worse position.

For Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend Malcolm Blight, one of the most creative coaches in the game's modern history, Hosking's notes are a treasure.

"Wow ... I can't believe the detail, the intricate detail ... and the thought process," Blight said. "It is amazing ... the amount of detail and the knowledge. This is from 100 years ago ... with a relatively new game. About 95 per cent of Shine's notes still apply to today's game. A few minor things do not. But Shine could teach today's coaches a few things.

"It was a positional game then. You played a position. As Shine says, you were not to wander from your position. How about what Shine says of the centre full forward?"

Always keep within kicking distance of goal ...

"That is what the great full forwards did," says Blight, a Coleman Medallist as the VFL-AFL leading goalkicker in 1982 (103 goals with North Melbourne). 

"Peter Hudson, Tony Lockett, Doug Wade and, to some degree, Jason Dunstall were always within goalkicking distance - that is where they are dangerous. So why do we today have the big forwards run 14 kilometres for team defence - even though they never touch the ball when they move up the ground - to stuff them up when they do have a shot on goal?"

Blight marvels at Hosking's advice on preparing for a set shot at goal.

When kicking for goal - always remember to square up to the goal, steady yourself, then after calculating the distance, do not take your eye off the ball - follow through with your kicking leg without bending the knee - never become careless.

"Square up with the goal ... do you know how many times I've said that?" Blight added. "Shine clearly was a coach helping his players become better. How about the little tips ... like, on a windy day, play your opponent on the windward side."

It is a golden rule that all flanks - wing, half-forward, full forward - must play wide out. That means wide out.

Hosking had 20 seasons as a coach in either the SANFL or the wartime patriotic league. He took his teams to 12 grand finals.

Hosking retired for the first time as a Port Adelaide player at the end of the 1921 season - his first as a coach (but not captain-coach) that ended with the SAFL flag, the first to hang at Alberton after the resumption of league football from the World War I break.

The following year, Hosking was at West Adelaide taking up an offer he could not refuse and Port Adelaide could not (or would not) match. The News reported the bombshell defection declaring "there should be a big improvement in (West Adelaide's) play in the very near future."

"What he does not know about the grand winter game is hardly worth knowing and by the time he has imparted that knowledge to the black and red men they should be hard to beat," the newspaper report added. "Few people ever dreamed that Hosking would ever be connected with any club but the Ports, but evidently Wests made him a good offer and he could not do anything but accept it. He will be greatly missed (at Port Adelaide)."

Hosking immediately lifted West Adelaide from seventh of eight in 1921 (three wins and a draw from 14 games) to the 1922 grand final that was won by minor premier Norwood. It was West Adelaide's first grand final in 10 years.

Don't be selfish - remember you have 17 team-mates. Don't hog the ball, it holds up combination.

Port Adelaide appointed Sam Howie as captain-coach in 1922, Clem Dayman in 1923, Arch Hosie as non-playing coach in 1924-1925 and Maurie Allingham as captain-coach in 1926. It missed the top-four finals in 1922 (fifth) and 1923 (seventh) and lost the grand finals in 1925 and 1926.

Hosking returned to Alberton - via South Adelaide - in 1927, securing his second league premiership as a coach the following season.

In the five years Hosking spent away from Alberton, Port Adelaide relied on its captain and vice-captain to share the coaching duties and set the standards during the week at training. By the end of 1926, after losing consecutive grand finals, Port Adelaide's off-field leaders concluded at annual meeting that the club needed a non-playing coach to set the agenda from the training track - and Hosking was arguably the best in Australia for such a role. This time, there was no doubt Port Adelaide should pay him as coach.

Hosking did come out of retirement as a player - to take the field as a forward for two games in 1927 - but it was, asThe News, reported his "boundless energy" as a coach on the training track that made a significant difference at Alberton.

"Hosking enters into the training with his charges and is one of the busiest men on the arena," the newspaper recorded during the 1929 SANFL top-four finals series. "His sprinting shows that he still retains a great deal of dash which carried him to the forefront of South Australian football in former years."

Get fit - keep fit. Fast snappy work at training. Train as you hope to play.

The News observed Hosking's ways reporting: "One of the main points stressed to players is to learn to kick with either foot and to turn both ways.

"Accurate passing, position play and goalkicking are features of his instructions. He is often to be seen combining with players in an effort to teach the forward men the art of leading into the goal. A quick handpass here and a small foot pass there and the coach has his men racing to the sticks. Then in the next instant he is tearing along with another man, worrying him to give his training in picking up a ball at full speed while being tackled by an opponent.

"Tireless in his endeavours, Hosking is one of the first on the field on a training night and invariably the last to leave. Whether they arrive early or late, the plays go through their training under the eagle eye of the coach."

BRAINS play (an) important part in football. So use them. Develop understanding with your team-mates.

Hosking's third stint as Port Adelaide coach - after guiding West Torrens to this club's second premiership in 1933 - was from 1936-1938 with back-to-back flags starting with the SA centenary premiership in 1936.

The 1936 season also marked Hosking's third return to the Port Adelaide league playing list - as the unexpected 19th man against West Torrens at Alberton Oval for his 162nd and last game at age 48 years and 154 days. This is an SANFL record that is almost certain to never be rewritten.

Even in retirement from the top flight - after 348 games as a coach in the league and World War II patriotic competition - Hosking was still offering wisdom, as a media critic or a sage for any young player wanting to learn.

"I always drill into the young players of today," Hosking said as SA football started its second post-war revival, "that they should concentrate on their weak points. There is little benefit - or wisdom - in a player going out to practice something at which he is already adept.

"My idea of training was to 'shadow' spar with an imaginary opponent. If I fell over - purposely or accidentally - I'd see how quickly I could rise.

"Again, when taking a mark on my own, I'd conjure up a vision of an opponent coming from behind and work on moves to beat him - knock the ball on, chase it, turn and boot.

"I always had that imaginary opponent at my side in training - and found it the surest way of giving extra zip to practice nights."

Hosking's coaching notes are full of such pearls that do not date themselves, even almost a century later when the game is supposedly loaded with more tactics than ever.

The centre line when the ball is either in attack or defence should never crowd over the centre line. They should form a new line - the wingmen wide out - just behind the centre line itself. Here they form a fresh dragnet for either

(a) The opposition's relieving kick which can be intercepted and driven in again.

(b) The long defensive kick from your team-mate which must be carried on into attack.

Long tenure was a Hosking family trait. When "Shine" Hosking retired from the Glanville Pipe Works in December 1952 - after 52 years in the government authority - he calculated, along with his grandfather, father (49 1/2 years) and brother (30), the Hosking family had clocked up more than 150 years of service.

Hosking entered retirement to play lawn bowls, tennis ... and to look after his garden.

Hosking died in 1974, aged 86, leaving behind an extraordinary record ... and legacy in Australian football. His coaching notes appear in the Port Adelaide Archives Collection.

A defender who runs with the ball is a menace to his team, he leaves uncovered his man. He also puts himself and his team-mates out of position. So don't run - kick the ball. Stick like glue. Never short pass in defence. Only handball to get out of difficulty. Flank defenders should never allow their opponents to get on the inside of them, but should keep themselves between their opponent and goal - so that when the forward turns for goal the defender has the inside drop on him.

SHINE HOSKING'S COACHING RECORD

PORT ADELAIDE

1921, 1927-1931 and 1936-1938

172 games (122-48-2)

WEST ADELAIDE

1922-1924

44 games (17-27)

SOUTH ADELAIDE

1926 

14 games (0-13-1)

WEST TORRENS

1932-1934 and 1939-1940

90 games (48-39-3)

PORT ADELAIDE-WEST TORRENS

1942-1943

28 games (20-8)

20 seasons

348 games (207-135-6)

Premierships (6): Port Adelaide, 1921, 1928, 1936 and 1937; Port Adelaide-West Torrens, 1942; West Torrens, 1933.

Grand finals (13): 1921 (W), 1922 (L), 1928 (W), 1929 (L), 1930 (L), 1933 (W), 1936 (W), 1937 (W), 1938 (L), 1939 (L), 1942 (W), 1943 (L), 1944 (L).

"Shine" Hosking's coaching notes are part of the special features presented in the Port Adelaide Archives Collection. The limited-edition production that details how a football power was built at Alberton and put on the national stage from 1870 is available to order now.

You can secure your copy of the Archives Collection by clicking here to order.