PORT ADELAIDE football boss Chris Davies is expecting the club’s coaching line-up to remain the same in 2021, despite reports linking senior assistant Michael Voss to the vacant top job at North Melbourne.
Port senior coach Ken Hinkley has been fortunate to be supported by some of the best football minds in the competition in forward coach Nathan Bassett, midfield coach Jarrad Schofield, defensive coach Brett Montgomery and Voss.
The group has been together for two seasons and that stability is starting to pay dividends with the side sitting top of the ladder for the entire season and being a kick away from a Grand Final in 2020.
Davies said having the off-field set-up in place has made what is a busy time slightly easier.
“We’ve got a pretty stable off-field unit,” the General Manager – Football said on Adelaide radio.
“Our coaches look like they’re probably going to remain the same and our high-performance unit are all locked in so not having to sort that out at the same time as the trade period is a good thing but it’s definitely been a busy ten days or so.”
Voss, a Brownlow Medallist, premiership captain and previously a senior coach in his own right with Brisbane, has been open about his aspiration to get another shot at coaching his own side.
But Davies was not expecting him to end up at the Kangaroos.
“I think that at the moment Michael has ruled himself out of that process so I’d be surprised if that was to change,” he said.
“Who knows where North goes down in the future but I should say we’re not looking for any new coaches so we’ll sort that out over the next period of time.
“I think we’re a pretty stable club and that’s certainly allowing us to do some other things during this trade period that will interest people.”
The trade period ends on Thursday night and Port has landed one of its targets so far with former Sydney defender Aliir Aliir joining on Wednesday.
Talks will continue about a potential trade for contracted Essendon forward Orazio Fantasia, who has indicated a desire to move to Alberton.
Attention will then turn to next month’s National Draft.
Port Adelaide is well placed to match any bids for and claim NGA prospect Lachie Jones, who has impressed recruiters with his size, composure and skill in a premiership year with Woodville-West Torrens.
Davies said father-son prospect Taj Schofield is also on the club’s radar.
“(He’s) the son of Jarrad Schofield so we’ve got the opportunity to match any bid that comes for Taj,” he said.
“He’s had a bit of an injury interrupted year but we think he’s certainly got some AFL attributes so he’ll be another one that we look at throughout the draft process as well.
“In fairness, he won’t go as high as Lachie Jones we don’t think, but he’ll certainly end up on an AFL list and the fact that we’ve got the last rights of refusal on him as a father-son player, I think we’re well placed to see where Taj’s career goes as well.”
