RELIEF was the overwhelming emotion for Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley after signing a three-year contract extension to remain at the Power until 2021.
Hinkley always wanted to extend his five-year tenure with the Power, but admitted he reassessed where he was at when Gold Coast made an approach to his manager, Peter Blucher, last week to take on the vacant senior coaching role with the Suns.
"It was just to double check with myself and my family, where am I at with this, can I continue on, am I the right person?" Hinkley said on Tuesday.
"To be the right person, you have to have an enormous amount of energy, and that's the question I have to be sure of myself, and I have that amount of energy and I am the right person."
Hinkley had been at the Suns before as an assistant when the fledgling club started at the end of 2010.
The relaxed lifestyle and staying out of the media bubble of Adelaide appealed, along with the security of a five-year deal.
But in the end, after meetings with Power president David Koch, chief executive Keith Thomas and head of football Chris Davies on Saturday, Hinkley decided he had unfinished business at Alberton.
"There's some relief because of the last week," Hinkley said.
"There's no doubt about that, it's been pretty tiring for everyone involved, family, Port Adelaide, myself, it becomes a little bit taxing, but just so pleased still to be part of this club and this group of players.
"I've always said, what we have going is unbelievable as a group of players between coaches and the football club.
"I needed to keep that going."
Hinkley took the Power to the finals in his first two seasons in charge in 2013 and 2014 – losing the 2014 preliminary final to Hawthorn by three points.
After missing the finals for the next two years after that, he made radical changes with the team, shifting experienced players to different parts of the ground and blooding youngsters.
Koch famously questioned whether Hinkley played too many young players in the club's heartbreaking two-point elimination final loss to West Coast.
"How can you walk away from a group that you built and you've been a part of?" Hinkley said.
"I walked in this door with a young Ollie Wines. Last year, I've been involved with a young (Sam) Powell-Pepper, Joe Atley, Todd Marshall-type players come in.
"If you know me, leaving that behind is nearly impossible."
Ken Hinkley and Keith Thomas at Tuesday's press conference. Picture: AFL Photos
Hinkley was already contracted to coach the Power for the 2018 season.
Thomas admitted the Suns' interest in Hinkley was a motivation for the Power to get the deal done.
"Because of the speculation and all the intensity of all of the media, it did accelerate the process," Thomas said.
"You don't want to be in the newspaper or in the media without a position.
"The longer it goes on, the longer the stories build, whether they're factual or not."
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