The Port Adelaide Football Club has always been about wins and losses, our stated mission is that we exist to win premierships, and in that light 2026 can’t be seen as anything but a failure at the PAFC.
And if you look strictly at the win-loss column this season, it would be easy to throw your hands in the air and assume nothing has changed at Alberton. The scoreboard is an unforgiving metric in professional sport, and nobody is going to throw a parade for where we currently sit on the ladder. Yet, if you actually watch the way this team is playing, competing, and conducting itself under Josh Carr, you realize that something fundamental has shifted in the DNA of our football club. For the first time in a long time, we are seeing genuine structural progress, defensive integrity and the foundation of a real football standard, even if the reward hasn’t registered on the ladder just yet.
What makes this shift even more remarkable is the context in which it is happening. Josh Carr has inherited a young list, lacking in depth (as a result of list management decisions by a previous regime), that has been hit by a relentless injury list. Yet, notice what hasn’t come out of the senior coach’s mouth once all year: excuses. There have been no pity parties in press conferences and no subtle attempts to lower expectations because a key player is sitting in the rehab group. That alone represents a seismic shift in attitude from what this fanbase endured for over a decade.
For years under Ken Hinkley, we were fed a steady diet of lowered expectations and external justification. We all noted his comments on radio, between coaching gigs, where he acknowledged that games had beeen categorised pre-match as green, orange, or red based on how winnable the coaching staff deemed them to be. We were constantly reminded of how tough the competition was, how hard it is to win games in the AFL, and how we should just be happy to be competing. Compare that defeatist mindset to Josh Carr. Carr steps onto the field every single week expecting to win, regardless of who is in the team or who we are playing against. We have seen that exact sharp-edged mentality reflected on the field in our performances against top sides this year, where the team has taken the fight to the best, scoring unlikely wins and pushing premiership contenders to the brink.
Looking back, it remains a genuine shame that the club leadership did not have the courage to move on from Ken Hinkley at least a year earlier than they did. The frustration is only heightened when you consider the revelations from Chief Executive Matthew Richardson, who admitted the administration was completely unaware that Hinkley had effectively checked out during 2025 while secretly holding discussions with the incoming Tasmania Devils franchise halfway through the season. That lingering hesitation cost us valuable time, but watching Josh Carr operate now only proves how urgent that change truly was.
Carr is instilling the exact standard of ruthless internal accountability that members and this blog have been desperate to see for years. You can hear it clearly in how he speaks about his players and the demands of modern footy. As Carr recently put it, “We are a group that’s put a lot of pressure on being in charge of your footy, being in charge of your career, and making sure that if you’re not up to it, then you’ve got to do everything you can to be up to it.” That is not empty coach-speak; it is a direct challenge to every player wearing the guernsey to own their preparation, performance, and development.
This standard brings us right back to the bedrock of our identity: the Port Adelaide Football Club Creed. The Creed explicitly states, “We the players and management of the Port Adelaide Football Club accept the heritage which players and administrators have passed down to us; in so doing we do not intend to rest in idleness but shall strive with all our power to further this club’s unexcelled achievements.” It goes on to remind us that “we know that should we, after striving to our utmost and giving our everything, still not be successful, our efforts will become a further part of this club’s enviable tradition.”
We all know the ultimate goal of the Port Adelaide Football Club is to win premierships, but doing so in the modern AFL environment is a deliberate, uncompromising process, particularly with such a young and evolving list. The essential task right now is not settling for comfortable mid-table finishes under a soft, non-accountable culture. It is about creating an environment where winning is non-negotiable and every player is held to the highest standard. That is how you actually build towards a flag and contribute to that enviable tradition, rather than just talking about it.
At long last, the club is starting to recognise its incredible heritage and acknowledge its passionate membership base. More importantly, our head coach is actively leaning into the intense expectations that come with representing Port Adelaide, rather than running away from them or trying to soften the blow when we fall short.
Nobody is pretending that our current win-loss record is acceptable by Port Adelaide standards. However, the cultural growth, tactical toughness, and individual progression we have witnessed throughout this season have put the club back on the right path. We are finally living the Creed again, setting up an environment that will pay massive dividends in the very near future, especially as a premier wave of father-son and Next Generation Academy talent arrives through the draft over the next two years. The foundation is being poured, the standard has been restored, and confidence is building that the real reward is coming.
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