Port Magpies Coach update - McGregor confirmed as coach

[Booney]

Ken McGregor will coach the Port Adelaide Football Club in the SANFL from 2013, bringing contemporary AFL experience to the role together with proven coaching ability and a hunger for success.

The 31-year-old takes up the position having played 152 AFL games with Adelaide between 1999 and 2008 before embarking on a coaching career that already has delivered an SANFL Reserves premiership and finals experience in the North Eastern Australian Football League.

Port Adelaide general manager (SANFL) Brian Leys congratulated McGregor on becoming only the ninth Magpies coach since 1950.

“Ken will be an outstanding Port Adelaide coach who comes to us with a decade of recent AFL playing experience and a clear understanding of modern trends in the game,” Leys said.

“We have seen the way football is developing along AFL lines in terms of team defensive structures and patterns of ball movement, and we believe Ken can put us up with that trend.

“Most impressively, he has a demonstrated talent for imparting his knowledge and game plan theories on players and for developing leadership among young groups, as shown during his brief but already successful coaching career.

“Ken has a very clear understanding of what we call ‘the Port Adelaide way’ - which is the winning culture that our club is known for - and he shares our hunger for success.

“We’ve played good football and times, but it’s been too long between premierships at Port Adelaide and we have no doubt that Ken McGregor is the right man to make us consistently successful and put us in the premiership race.”

McGregor will relocate from Canberra where he spent 2012 working full-time and serving as a playing assistant coach with the Ainslie Football Club, which finished third in the NEAFL Eastern Conference after losing a semi-final by one point.

He coached Glenelg to the 2011 SANFL Reserves premiership after being promoted to the role mid-season, having started the year as the Tigers’ forward coach.

McGregor said he was honoured to take up his first senior coaching role at Port Adelaide.

“I’m just excited at the moment and I can’t wait to get to work,” McGregor said.

“I see a lot of potential in the guys from last season when they were a bit up and down, but obviously they got some really good up and I’d like to harness more of that in 2013.”

McGregor is demanding immediate results from the playing group and a marked improvement on Port Adelaide’s seventh placing in 2012, the Magpies’ fourth year without playing in the major round.

“The playing group would have been disappointed they didn’t make the finals last year,” McGregor said.

“They definitely had the potential to do it and things didn’t quite fall their way. I know the playing group wants to make an impact in the finals and I’ll be aiming for that as well.”

McGregor said playing against Port Adelaide in the SANFL and AFL had given him an understanding of the club’s values and expectations of success.

“Coming from sort of outside the Port Adelaide Football Club and tradition, it’s something you have an envy of,” McGregor said.

“You see it and sometimes you hate it, but the reason you hate it when you’re playing against it is because you envy it.

“It’s definitely a weapon that the Port Adelaide Football Club has through the Magpies and the Power and that’s something that we’ll be trying to use that to the best effect.”

McGregor believes while defence is a cornerstone of modern football, there is still room for attack in the game plan.

“Definitely, I’ll bring a bit of defensive to it, but I still believe at SANFL level there’s a lot of room for attack and we’ll be trying to get that right balance,” he said.

“We will want to tighten up the defence but a lot of your attack comes from that defence so we’ll definitely be playing some exciting football.”

McGregor identified leadership development as another priority in his coaching philosophy. “I believe in all inclusive leadership and trying to get everyone to self-motivate and self-drive their own career and their own performance and I just want to be a moderator to help them achieve that.”

Port Adelaide undertook an exhaustive four-week selection process for its new SANFL senior coach, involving multiple interviews with the final contenders.

“We were fortunate to have a great field of exceptional candidates to consider, and we thank all of them,” Leys said.

“Our selection committee worked tirelessly for many hours and put the candidates through a searching process before reaching a decision.

“We looked at this from every angle and we believe we can say beyond doubt that we have identified the best man to be the next coach of the Port Adelaide Football Club.”

McGregor takes over from Tony Bamford who held the Port Adelaide coaching role between 2010 and 2012, and who remains with Port Adelaide as talent manager.

Port Adelaide is close to finalising the remainder of its 2013 SANFL coaching structure and will make an announcement at the appropriate time.

[Dogwatcher]

Did Kenny get the byline on that piece?

[Wedgie]

Good luck to Kenny. If hes with the same chick he used to be with then it could be interesting as her father is a mad Bays fan!

[JK]

Good luck to Kenny. If hes with the same chick he used to be with then it could be interesting as her father is a mad Bays fan!

Wouldn't think there's many sane Bays fans

[Dogwatcher]

This site is proof.

[Rik E Boy]

Four years without finals. Long may you suck.

regards,

REB

[RustyCage]

Four years without finals. Long may you suck.

regards,

REB

we have sucked for too long!

[beenreal]

Im not concerned because he is an outsider- its the part time aspect that concerns me.

Anyhoo the club has made its decision, they see Ken as the best fit for the position and i too, wish him all the best.

I understand Ron Fuller to be the only full time coach remaining in the SANFL.

Most sensible people would accept that the process of appointing both PAFC coaches was hindered somewhat by unforseen and unfortunate events.

At the moment the article reads well and he's said all the right things. Unless he starts losing that's good enough for me.

[am Bays]

Good luck to Kenny. If hes with the same chick he used to be with then it could be interesting as her father is a mad Bays fan!

Wouldn't think there's many sane Bays fans

Hey, I resemble that remark...

[am Bays]

I understand Ron Fuller to be the only full time coach remaining in the SANFL.

Micky Godden, Kris Massie and Andy Collins all say hello

[am Bays]

Good luck to Kenny. If hes with the same chick he used to be with then it could be interesting as her father is a mad Bays fan!

Unless he got divorced in under a year I'd say he still is with her!

[topsywaldron]

I understand Ron Fuller to be the only full time coach remaining in the SANFL.

Micky Godden, Kris Massie and Andy Collins all say hello

Bass is furious he isn't in that exalted company too.

[whufc]

I understand Ron Fuller to be the only full time coach remaining in the SANFL.

Micky Godden, Kris Massie and Andy Collins all say hello

Bass is furious he isn't in that exalted company too.

7 out of the last 9 (?) premierships have been won by 'part time' coaches.

Kenny been part time is the last of the maggies worries.

[am Bays]

Bass is furious he isn't in that exalted company too.

Isn't Bass currently holding out for full time wages for a part-time job???

[Jim05]

I understand Ron Fuller to be the only full time coach remaining in the SANFL.

Micky Godden, Kris Massie and Andy Collins all say hello

Bass is furious he isn't in that exalted company too.

7 out of the last 9 (?) premierships have been won by 'part time' coaches.

Kenny been part time is the last of the maggies worries.

Exactly
Got to get some players first after heaps of players have deserted them

[RustyCage]

Bamford was only part time senior coach wasn't he? He had two jobs at the club, both half time equivalent

[hottie]

Hope now for the magpies things will be alot more settled,hopefully Ken will do well.

[Long live SAnFL]

Four years without finals. Long may you suck.

regards,

REB

we have sucked for too long!

You guys have only sucked as "one club" for two years so plenty of years left yet!

[Macca19]

I like Kenny Mac. Hopefully he can get the best out of what he has to work with

[RustyCage]

Four years without finals. Long may you suck.

regards,

REB

we have sucked for too long!

You guys have only sucked as "one club" for two years so plenty of years left yet!

that's two years too many!