Primus acted as caretaker coach of the Power for the last seven games of the season following premiership mentor Mark Williams’ swift exit from the club in round 15.
Port Adelaide put in place a lengthy selection process to find its next senior coach and announced on Thursday that Primus had been signed to a three-year deal.
The uncertainty surrounding the vacant senior coaching position has prevented the club from making any major list-management decisions and is believed to have contributed to the delay in the out-of-contract Salopek deciding on remaining at Alberton or returning to Victoria with his young family.
Motlop endured a horror season both on and off the field and it has been reported the contracted forward is weighing up a move to Western Australia, where his son lives.
Port Adelaide has already lost dashing half-back Nathan Krakouer to Gold Coast and veteran pair Warren Tredrea and Josh Carr to retirement, and Primus said the club would make at least another three changes to its list.
“We’ll sit down and talk with those players [Salopek and Motlop] now that we’ve finalised who the senior coach is. We’ll look at what they really want to do and what we want to do,” Primus said.
“Motts is contracted and Steven has been made aware that we’d like to keep him here and that he’s a valued part of our team. We haven’t given up [on keeping Motlop], we just haven’t discussed what’s going with him.
“We’ll sit down and sort that out over the next few weeks.”
The Power will also make several changes to their assistant coaching panel.
Primus’ midfield portfolio is up for grabs and the club is also resigned to losing former North Melbourne coach Dean Laidley, who has indicated he will return to Melbourne next season.
Primus was one of four candidates to progress through to the final round of interviews in Port Adelaide’s coaching selection process, but was the only applicant asked to present to the board on Wednesday.
President Brett Duncanson said Primus’ leadership qualities and communication skills had contributed to the unanimous decision to offer the position to the former skipper.
“Matt is an outstanding young man. Importantly, he is his own man and he’s a leader of men,” Duncanson said.
“Matt has an outstanding Port Adelaide heritage, but that was not in any way the deciding factor in his selection. He is, we believe and know, a diamond in our own backyard.”
Primus, who said he would have left the club if he had been unsuccessful in his bid to become the next senior coach, guided Port Adelaide to five wins from its last seven games this season.
The former ruckman refused to put any limitations on his players for next season, but said he would aim to build the team for sustained success.
“I probably see the list as being similar to when Mark Williams took over [in 1999]. We had a young list then that had been together for just the two years when we came into the competition,” he said.
“It’s not about being successful for just next year or the year after. We want to set a platform on and off the field and make sure that our behaviours keep pushing us to get better each year - not just for one or two years and then we fall back down again.”
