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Travis Boak speaks about his next move, Port Adelaide’s controversial coaching succession plan and how he almost left for Western Bulldogs
After 387 games and nearly two decades in Adelaide, Port Adelaide great Travis Boak is selling up but he won’t rule out returning to the club.
Retired Port Adelaide great Travis Boak will sell his western suburbs home and return to live in Victoria.
The Power games record holder has been linked with clubs including Collingwood, Western Bulldogs and Carlton to discuss joining their football departments and help players with their mindset and performance.
He has not ruled out becoming a head coach and left the door open to returning to Port Adelaide, where he retired this year after playing 387 games over 19 seasons.
“I’m pretty set on moving back to Victoria now,” Boak told The Advertiser.
“I’ve had 19 years here, 19 amazing years and been able to spend a lot of time with my sister and her partner here in Adelaide.
“I’ve obviously made some great friends over here but a lot of my family is back in Victoria – whether it’s Melbourne or Geelong or Torquay.”
Boak, 37, grew up in the Torquay suburb of Jan Jac and famously rejected overtures from Geelong to lure him back before re-signing with the Power at the end of 2012.
He will spend a month holidaying overseas before making a call on his plans for 2026, when he hopes to assume a role he admits is currently “kind of a made-up position within a footy environment”.
“I want to coach the athlete, not the footballer, and coach the athletes to be a really good footballer in terms of how to prepare using mindset, performance-based work,” he said.
“It’s something that I really enjoyed in the latter part of my career – to really understand what kind of level you have to get to be a really good athlete to then go out and be a footballer.”
Boak said he had never aspired to be a senior coach but during frequent chats Ken Hinkley, the long-time Power mentor often “guaranteed” he would become one.
“I don’t know if he’s right or not yet but I’d love to mentor and mentoring is basically coaching,” he said.
“The best coaches are the best mentors and the whole thing as a leader is you want to get the best out of every individual and every individual is different.
“You’ve got to understand them, how they learn, how they react to certain things and I think that’s something that I can continue to learn and improve and maybe does lead down that track – but I’m not sure just yet.”
When asked if there was any chance he could one day return to Alberton, Boak said: “Maybe I’ll learn as much as I can and come back as a mentor, I don’t know.”
What Boaky really thinks of Port’s coaching plan
Retiring Port Adelaide great Travis Boak has conceded the club’s controversial coaching succession plan did not work.
Boak said he was “genuinely shocked” and “sad” when the club announced at the start of 2025 its plan to replace long-time mentor Ken Hinkley with premiership player and assistant coach Josh Carr at the end of the season.
In an interview with The Advertiser to promote his new book The Power Within, Boak was asked if he thought the plan had been a success.
“No, it clearly wasn’t,” Boak said. “In terms of how it all played out, it wasn’t the year that we would’ve liked to have had. But at the same time, we had a lot of injuries, a lot of challenges, but I’m sure if the club had their choice to do it again, they might do it a different way.”
“It was something that I don’t think has ever been done before – in terms of announcing that (a new) coach, at the start of the year, was going to be a line coach.
“I just think it presents a lot of challenges and it did throughout the year.”
In The Power Within, Boak also reveals that for a couple of years he “hated” his one-time mentor Kane Cornes after the former Power tagger moved to the media and in 2017 wrote a column saying Boak, then captain, was not among the club’s best 15 players.
“I unfollowed him on everything (social media) and didn’t want to talk to him for a period of time,” Boak said.
“There was a part of me that understood that he was doing a job but at the time it just hurt a lot. In the end it was just an opinion based on football but I, at the time, didn’t see it like that.
“(Eventually) I just matured a lot and we just had a chat and we talked through it.”
Boak retired in August after a club-record 387 games, his final season hampered by a chronic back injury so severe he considered retiring mid-season.
He said the lure of reaching 400 games if he played on to next season was never a factor.
“I’ve never seen those things on a resume as anything other than just a number,” he said. “It’s amazing to play so many games for the footy club but it was more about the impact that I was having and that started to decline.
“There’s no point just playing on and taking a position just to get to 400 – that’s just a selfish way of looking at it.”
How Boak almost left Port for enemy club
The Port Adelaide games record holder told club powerbrokers he would finish his career at the Western Bulldogs if they forced him to retire at the end of a disappointing 2023 season.
In his new book The Power Within, Boak reveals he was blindsided when Hinkley called him into his office late in the 2023 season and asked if he thought it was time to bring his stellar career to an end.
The former captain had struggled for most of the year with broken ribs and was adapting to a new position on the wing, but had been being runner-up in the Power’s best and fairest count the previous two years.
“I am not naive, I have seen mates go through it (retirement), so I know how cutthroat the AFL is, but I didn’t think I was at that stage of being questioned about finishing up,” Boak writes.
“It is funny, once you get over the age of 30, people tend not to look at a drop in form as temporary but as proof of permanent decline.”
Boak consulted with his inner circle, including manager Tom Petroro and cousin Anthony Fagan, who agreed he was still capable of a couple more years of elite football.
Both Sydney and the Western Bulldogs had been in touch with Petroro after hearing Boak was yet to resign with the Power for 2024.
“They both came with similar offers for me to play a year or two then transition into an assistant coaching or leadership role,” Boak writes. “I admit that wasn’t just comforting, it was pretty tempting.”
Both clubs wanted Boak to play a role similar to ones played by Luke Hodge at Brisbane and Sam Mitchell at West Coast.
Boak’s preference was to stay at Port but if the Power did now renew his contract, he decided he would play elsewhere. He had always been impressed by Sydney as a club but the lure of playing with Marcus Bontempelli meant shifting to the Dogs were his second preference.
“He’s the best player in the competition, so if they want me to come I would love the chance to play with him,” Boak writes.
“The fact that his also meant moving back to Victoria and being on the right side of the West Gate Bridge for me to get down to Jan Juc also helped.
“I really wanted to play at Port, but if that couldn’t happen, then I would go to the Bulldogs.”
But at his end-of-year exit meeting, Boak told Power footy chiefs including Hinkley and Chris Davies that “while I knew they wanted me to retire, I wanted to keep playing”.
There was a pause as people digested what he had said, then Davies spoke up.
“If Travis is going to play AFL footy next year, in my heart, he cannot play anywhere else,” he said.
“We need to understand our club and the ethics and culture of our club, and we just can’t have Travis Boak wearing another club’s jumper.”
The Power Within by Travis Boak, with Michael Gleeson, published by Pan MacMillan Australia, $45, is out now
After 387 games and nearly two decades in Adelaide, Port Adelaide great Travis Boak is selling up but he won’t rule out returning to the club.
Retired Port Adelaide great Travis Boak will sell his western suburbs home and return to live in Victoria.
The Power games record holder has been linked with clubs including Collingwood, Western Bulldogs and Carlton to discuss joining their football departments and help players with their mindset and performance.
He has not ruled out becoming a head coach and left the door open to returning to Port Adelaide, where he retired this year after playing 387 games over 19 seasons.
“I’m pretty set on moving back to Victoria now,” Boak told The Advertiser.
“I’ve had 19 years here, 19 amazing years and been able to spend a lot of time with my sister and her partner here in Adelaide.
“I’ve obviously made some great friends over here but a lot of my family is back in Victoria – whether it’s Melbourne or Geelong or Torquay.”
Boak, 37, grew up in the Torquay suburb of Jan Jac and famously rejected overtures from Geelong to lure him back before re-signing with the Power at the end of 2012.
He will spend a month holidaying overseas before making a call on his plans for 2026, when he hopes to assume a role he admits is currently “kind of a made-up position within a footy environment”.
“I want to coach the athlete, not the footballer, and coach the athletes to be a really good footballer in terms of how to prepare using mindset, performance-based work,” he said.
“It’s something that I really enjoyed in the latter part of my career – to really understand what kind of level you have to get to be a really good athlete to then go out and be a footballer.”
Boak said he had never aspired to be a senior coach but during frequent chats Ken Hinkley, the long-time Power mentor often “guaranteed” he would become one.
“I don’t know if he’s right or not yet but I’d love to mentor and mentoring is basically coaching,” he said.
“The best coaches are the best mentors and the whole thing as a leader is you want to get the best out of every individual and every individual is different.
“You’ve got to understand them, how they learn, how they react to certain things and I think that’s something that I can continue to learn and improve and maybe does lead down that track – but I’m not sure just yet.”
When asked if there was any chance he could one day return to Alberton, Boak said: “Maybe I’ll learn as much as I can and come back as a mentor, I don’t know.”
What Boaky really thinks of Port’s coaching plan
Retiring Port Adelaide great Travis Boak has conceded the club’s controversial coaching succession plan did not work.
Boak said he was “genuinely shocked” and “sad” when the club announced at the start of 2025 its plan to replace long-time mentor Ken Hinkley with premiership player and assistant coach Josh Carr at the end of the season.
In an interview with The Advertiser to promote his new book The Power Within, Boak was asked if he thought the plan had been a success.
“No, it clearly wasn’t,” Boak said. “In terms of how it all played out, it wasn’t the year that we would’ve liked to have had. But at the same time, we had a lot of injuries, a lot of challenges, but I’m sure if the club had their choice to do it again, they might do it a different way.”
“It was something that I don’t think has ever been done before – in terms of announcing that (a new) coach, at the start of the year, was going to be a line coach.
“I just think it presents a lot of challenges and it did throughout the year.”
In The Power Within, Boak also reveals that for a couple of years he “hated” his one-time mentor Kane Cornes after the former Power tagger moved to the media and in 2017 wrote a column saying Boak, then captain, was not among the club’s best 15 players.
“I unfollowed him on everything (social media) and didn’t want to talk to him for a period of time,” Boak said.
“There was a part of me that understood that he was doing a job but at the time it just hurt a lot. In the end it was just an opinion based on football but I, at the time, didn’t see it like that.
“(Eventually) I just matured a lot and we just had a chat and we talked through it.”
Boak retired in August after a club-record 387 games, his final season hampered by a chronic back injury so severe he considered retiring mid-season.
He said the lure of reaching 400 games if he played on to next season was never a factor.
“I’ve never seen those things on a resume as anything other than just a number,” he said. “It’s amazing to play so many games for the footy club but it was more about the impact that I was having and that started to decline.
“There’s no point just playing on and taking a position just to get to 400 – that’s just a selfish way of looking at it.”
How Boak almost left Port for enemy club
The Port Adelaide games record holder told club powerbrokers he would finish his career at the Western Bulldogs if they forced him to retire at the end of a disappointing 2023 season.
In his new book The Power Within, Boak reveals he was blindsided when Hinkley called him into his office late in the 2023 season and asked if he thought it was time to bring his stellar career to an end.
The former captain had struggled for most of the year with broken ribs and was adapting to a new position on the wing, but had been being runner-up in the Power’s best and fairest count the previous two years.
“I am not naive, I have seen mates go through it (retirement), so I know how cutthroat the AFL is, but I didn’t think I was at that stage of being questioned about finishing up,” Boak writes.
“It is funny, once you get over the age of 30, people tend not to look at a drop in form as temporary but as proof of permanent decline.”
Boak consulted with his inner circle, including manager Tom Petroro and cousin Anthony Fagan, who agreed he was still capable of a couple more years of elite football.
Both Sydney and the Western Bulldogs had been in touch with Petroro after hearing Boak was yet to resign with the Power for 2024.
“They both came with similar offers for me to play a year or two then transition into an assistant coaching or leadership role,” Boak writes. “I admit that wasn’t just comforting, it was pretty tempting.”
Both clubs wanted Boak to play a role similar to ones played by Luke Hodge at Brisbane and Sam Mitchell at West Coast.
Boak’s preference was to stay at Port but if the Power did now renew his contract, he decided he would play elsewhere. He had always been impressed by Sydney as a club but the lure of playing with Marcus Bontempelli meant shifting to the Dogs were his second preference.
“He’s the best player in the competition, so if they want me to come I would love the chance to play with him,” Boak writes.
“The fact that his also meant moving back to Victoria and being on the right side of the West Gate Bridge for me to get down to Jan Juc also helped.
“I really wanted to play at Port, but if that couldn’t happen, then I would go to the Bulldogs.”
But at his end-of-year exit meeting, Boak told Power footy chiefs including Hinkley and Chris Davies that “while I knew they wanted me to retire, I wanted to keep playing”.
There was a pause as people digested what he had said, then Davies spoke up.
“If Travis is going to play AFL footy next year, in my heart, he cannot play anywhere else,” he said.
“We need to understand our club and the ethics and culture of our club, and we just can’t have Travis Boak wearing another club’s jumper.”
The Power Within by Travis Boak, with Michael Gleeson, published by Pan MacMillan Australia, $45, is out now
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